This is the 8th installment find the 1st one here

Giving up the hunt for a red wine that we liked in the early 80’s was an easy thing to do.  At a bar or restaurant the request for a glass of white wine was still the cool way to go as an alternative to hard liquor or beer, and it was easy to drink.

My wife and I attended a wedding of a very wealthy friend and at the meal with them we were served a favorite chardonnay of his.  I was astounded by it and really liked it.  That was the first white wine that did not taste sweet and syrupy to me.  It had a bit of dry taste (I thought about oat straw) but it was really quite pleasing.  My wife didn’t really like it and wanted her wine to be a bit sweeter.  After that first chardonnay, we did investigate and seek out new and different ones as we traveled and really found some that we totally enjoyed. 

We started to ask for chardonnay instead of Chablis when we went out and we both finally felt we were on to something.  We found favorites together and started to enjoy wine with meals and sitting around in the evening with each other.  We even purchased white wine glasses, just to be correct to our friends and then soon found out the drinking out them did taste better that the regular 8 oz. tumblers straight from the every day cupboard full of cups and glasses.

Looking for and finding a wine that matched both our tastes was a real challenge and it did not happen often.  When it did, however, we felt like we had found something worth looking for.  Wine drinking had now become fun for us and gave us something to explore and really enjoy.  Who’d of “thunk”?

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

Tags: chardonnay, wine

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