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Tag Archives: chardonnay

Featured Wine of the Week: Buttercream Chardonnay

23 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by totalwineandmore in New Product, Wine

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

apple, butter, California, chardonnay, oak, pear, vanilla

Our featured wine this week is a new arrival at our stores. With spring in bloom, it’s time for flavorful wines to take center stage during all of your seasonal activities. If you enjoy a Chardonnay that tastes like silken butter dripped over a fresh croissant, this one is for you.

Buttercream Chardonnay
750ml, California

Butter, butter, butter, Buttercream Chardonnay packs in butter with every sip, along with notes of oak, vanilla, pear and apple. This wine is delicious on its own, but pairs wonderfully with shellfish, such as lobster, cheeses and any dish with a rich, creamy sauce.

Stop in and pick up our newest Winery Direct arrival during your next visit, or order it online and have it ready in one-hour with our express in-store pickup option.

What is Winery Direct?

Total Wine & More’s buying teams travel across the United States and the world, looking for new and exciting wines. They forge meaningful relationships with the best producers, providing us with exclusive access to world-class products and the ability to offer these exceptional products at incredible prices. Most importantly, they allow us to streamline the process of bringing wines from the producer to you – slashing costs and letting us showcase the best of the best on our shelves.

Winery Direct items are identified in our stores by the yellow shelf tags. We offer more than 8,000 wines in a typical store – including more than 2,000 Winery Direct items, many exclusive to Total Wine & More.

Chardonnays for spring

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by totalwineandmore in Wine

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

chardonnay, spring, wines for spring

Sparkling wine

The flowers are in bloom and so are the aisles at Total Wine & More. Our shelves are blossoming with fantastic California Chardonnays at great prices, perfect for the mild spring evenings ahead.

chardonnay-we-are-sonoma-blog

Some of our favorites are produced by the River Road Family Vineyards and Winery in California’s Sonoma region. We are Sonoma is an ideal everyday Chardonnay. Made by winemaker Joe Freeman, We are Sonoma is a great value for the region, with the classic Sonoma Chardonnay flavor profile of sweet apple, ripe lemons and roasted almond. It pairs well with seafoods and is a nice addition to hors d’oeuvres.

chardonnay-river-road-blog

River Road Chardonnay, a flagship wine of the same winery, is another Sonoma County standout. It boasts flavors of crisp pear and apple that meld with notes of butter and vanilla on the long, smooth finish. River Road sources a majority of its grapes from the prestigious Russian River Valley appellation, which drives the enticing flavors of many of its wines.

chardonnay-reserve-river-road-blog

Another great entry into River Road’s Russian River Valley series is River Road Chardonnay Russian River Valley Reserve. Vibrant, with a hint of vanilla and bright fresh pear flavors, it’s a full-bodied Chardonnay that will stand up to chicken or fish off the grill.

chardonnay-angeline-blog

Located in the heart of the Russian River Valley, Angeline Winery is another Sonoma County star. The ever-popular Angeline Chardonnay boasts flavors of tropical fruit and citrus, which are balanced by toasty oak and vanilla on the long finish.

chardonnay-five-branches-blog

Similar to Angelina Chardonnay in its flavor profile, Five Branches Chardonnay offers up flavors of tropical and citrus fruit with a hint of vanilla oak that lead into a brilliant, clean finish. It’s a tasty addition to grilled fish, chicken or creamy pasta dishes.

With more than 1,000 Chardonnays to choose from, we can help you find just the right one. Stop by your neighborhood Total Wine & More today.

Last-minute wines for the Thanksgiving win

24 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by totalwineandmore in Thanksgiving, Wine

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Tags

chardonnay, Last Minute, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Thanksgiving, wines

112015_thanks_turkey_glasses

Between handling airport pick-ups and stocking up on essentials from cranberry sauce to ingredients for your great aunt’s famous stuffing, it’s tough to find time for wine. That’s why we’ve put together a list of last-minute favorites that will pair beautifully with your Thanksgiving dinner and impress even the most discerning in-law.

Holzkiste-Heidemanns3

Photo credit: Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler

The Mosel is home to some of Germany’s very best Rieslings, and Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler Riesling QbA is no exception. Riesling and Thanksgiving are well-matched, since the wine’s lightness, acidity and fruitiness make it a perfect companion to sweet dishes like candied yams as well as rich sides like stuffing. Boasting an 88-point rating from Wine Spectator, Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler Riesling QbA offers great flavors of peach and ripe apple. Hints of cream and honey give this wine a delightful finish that will pair perfectly with your first, second and third helpings of turkey.

There are many reasons to love Pinot Noir. But one of its signature strengths plays a critical role during the holidays: It’s hard to find a food it doesn’t complement. This year, we’re toasting with Pinot Noir that hails from one of America’s hottest wine-making regions, Willamette Valley, Oregon. Kudos Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton District, Willamette Valley, is a perfect wine to give thanks with on name alone. It also happens to be a wonderfully flavorful wine with notes of black cherry and raspberry accented by aromas of white pepper, spice and rose.

Muirwood-chard-v2

And last, but certainly not least: Muirwood Chardonnay Reserve Zanetta Cuvee, a wine that often makes our recommendation list, given its incredible value and delightfully expressive qualities. Produced from two vineyards in California’s famed Monterey County, it possesses flavors of pear and peach with a finish of vanilla and spice that lingers on the palate. The ripe fruit flavors of the wine counterbalance the richness of many Thanksgiving dishes, as well as the savory, earthy flavors of turkey.

Between last-minute grocery store trips and wondering again why you decided to host Thanksgiving, stop by Total Wine & More, and we’ll be ready with the most essential ingredient when it comes to celebrating the holidays.

You can also shop our Thanksgiving selections online by clicking here.

Wine Geek Speak: Three Treatments that Shape Chardonnay

25 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Wine

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

chardonnay, viticulture

chardonnay close up 2

Chardonnay styles easily range from light and crisp unoaked varieties to full-bodied oaked versions that display toasty impressions. If these were the only variables, Chardonnay would still cover a broad spectrum of flavors and aromas; but there is more to this story.

Wines often undergo other treatments that profoundly affect flavor, and Chardonnay is no exception. Any combination of three particular treatments often determines a winemaker’s true signature and can make individual styles stand out. Understanding these easily can impact your wine knowledge and experience as you shop for your next new favorite.

The first treatment is “malolactic fermentation,” a process applied after alcoholic fermentation where bacteria converts the tart “malic” acids in the wine—similar to those found in orange juice—into soft, rounder lactic acids, such as those found in milk. All red wines go through this process but only some whites. Applied to either all or some of a given batch, the process makes the wine fuller and creamier. You might even detect a milky aroma on the nose as a result.

“Sur Lie” (pronounced “Sir Lee”) is an aging approach in which some wines, or a portion of the blend, are aged “on the lees.” Winemakers leave the dead yeast and other sediment—grape skin fragments, seeds or pulp from the fermentation vat—with the wine during aging rather than taking steps to remove them. The lees produce additional flavors in the wine, including bready complexity. In addition to Chardonnay, winemakers perform this process on some Muscadet wines from France’s Loire region, and it is part of the process for every bottle-fermented sparkling wine, such as wine from France’s Champagne region.

Finally, “battonage” or “lees barrel room 1stirring” is exactly as it sounds. As the wine ages either in an oak barrel or stainless steel tank, winemakers periodically stir the mix to increase yeast exposure and draw greater complexity from the bready mix.

While winemakers delve into even more complex creativity in the winemaking process, these three descriptors help define different Chardonnay styles and unlock the roots of their unique characteristics. Understanding just these three terms will open your eyes to more Chardonnay variety. Just tell Total Wine & More representatives which style you’d like to try and they will gladly help you find it.

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