The words ‘clean’ and ‘chardonnay’ don’t go together as often as they should when describing chardonnay wines from California. That’s too bad. Although heavily oaked/buttery chards can be very appealing, they become a difficult food wine for me. What a joy to bump in Kendall Jackson’s 2005 Grand Reserve Chardonnay. It’s clean (there’s that wonderful word again), flavorful (a little citrus), and very drinkable. If I told you that this is a great hot summer afternoon/early evening wine you might think that it is simple and inelegant. So, for heaven’s sake do not drink this on a hot summer afternoon or early evening.

At 45 bucks this would be a good buy. At the sub $15 price that I found it at, well around here we call that astounding! I don’t know how many cases of this wine were made, but Kendall Jackson is a mighty big wine-maker so it should be widely available. If you find it at Jackson’s $20 list price, I would still tell you to by six bottles – it’s that good.

This is a wine that would go great with most of SingleChefGuy’s Thai dishes, any of his recipes with the word ‘Asian’ in the title, and certainly his May 15, 2007 Ahi Tuna recipe. I don’t know what’s coming up, but if he decides to grill a nice thick hamburger with gorgonzola cheese on it, in it, or around it, I’m pulling out a bottle of this Kendall Jackson and sitting down with a smile on my face.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!. Rather get email notification?