Let’s start out by saying that drinking a five year-old chardonnay from California is always chancy. These wines, along with Zinfandels, are best drunk young; in their first 2 or 3 birthdays. Rutherford Hill’s 2002 Chardonnay breaks this rule. In fact this wine is good for at least another two years; I don’t care what anyone says. Very light, with a tint of green in color, this wine has a very nice chardonnay-like nose (sniff, sniff). It does not come on strong, but at mid-palate it says, “Hello, how are you?” This is a very smooth (but not too) wine with excellent citrus tones. Overall this is an excellent California chardonnay. The guys and gals at Rutherford Hill should stand proud.

We had this with cod (we’ve been on a fish kick lately) with a dill/cucumber/Greek (is there any other kind) yogurt sauce. It went especially well with a garden and herb salad topped with garlic/apple-cider vinaigrette. A more creamy sauce would over-power this wine. Be careful; but not too careful.

The singleGuyChef would say this is a perfect aperitif. I wouldn’t since I don’t use words with four syllables (except vinaigrette). Enjoy.

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