The Grape Crusader

Winery: Lioco

Bottling: 2008 Sonoma County Chardonnay

Region: California

Sub-Region: Sonoma

Estimated Retail Price: $20

Purchase Details: A good buddy of mine with whom I used to work with procured this bottle for me.  Based on the many conversations we had about wine, he felt strongly that I would really like Lioco’s wines, so he bought it for me from the company his wife works for.  Thanks Mark, Lioco can now count me as a lifetime fan.

Tasting Notes: On the nose, the Lioco chardonnay gave off very fresh floral and tropical notes.  In the mouth, I loved the play and intensity of the tropical fruit flavors with the creamy mouth feel along with the fresh finish from the underlying acidity.   Although utterly delicious on its own, I just know that if this chardonnay were drunk alongside food from India or Thailand, a wine and food pairing nirvana would be attained.

The back label displaying the wine's nutritional info and instructions for enjoyment.

Food Pairing & Context in Which to Enjoy: This wine tastes nothing like a wine from Alsace, but if you treated it like one and drunk it alongside the types of Asian cuisine that typically pair well with Alsatian wines, I have no doubt that it would be a hit.  Think Thai, Indian and Malaysian food.  Mmm mmm good!

Winery & Other Background Information: From what I’ve tasted so far, I’m really digging the wines this company turns out.  Their wines have a sort of restrained and refined exuberance, if that makes any sense.  They possess flavor and texture profiles that are pure, alive and real.  Simply put, they’re well-made and very well-balanced.

I don’t know much about “natural wine-making” techniques, (for it’s what Lioco and increasingly what many other wine companies are preaching as their style) but winemaker Kevin Kelly makes wines that I would envision as the closest thing to the concept of what “natural wine making” would produce.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 9:44 am and is filed under California, Chardonnay, White, Wine Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.