Drew's Wine List

2018 Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages Vintage:  2018 Region:  Beaujolais, France (Beaujolais-Villages AOC)  Winemakers:  Louis Jadot Varietal:  Gamay Price:  $10 Expert Rating: 89 My Rating:  86 The Review:  Beaujolais! Is it Burgundy? Is it its own region? Who knows! (if you're already curious this soon into reading the post, I'll answer- it's legally classified as Burgundy, but because they don't grow the same grapes as Burgundy, it's technically its own wine region. You'll soon notice a common theme of France being dumb.) Aside from being fun to say, this is probably one of the more well-known wine regions of the world (especially amongst Millenials and older). However, it's not famous these days for spectacular wines- quite the opposite in fact. It's famous because in the 80's, a wine known as Beaujolais Nouveau exploded in popularity in the US. Beaujolais Nouveau is bottled immediately after fermentation and is traditionally drank exclusively ...

2017 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay Vintage:  2017 Region:  California, USA  Winemakers:  Kendall-Jackson Varietal:  Chardonnay Price:  $12 (literally can be found everywhere) Expert Rating:  90 My Rating:  89 The Review: Happy Father's Day! Hope all you dads out there had a chill weekend and were able to watch some golf like me... Today's review features a wine from California mega-firm, Jackson Family Wines. The 2017 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay is a solid wine, a great introduction to Chardonnay, and a classic example of what the grape can do. I've actually reviewed a Chardonnay before, but most of you didn't know about this blog when I wrote that so I'll touch on some things again. First, let me address some thoughts you might have had when I said I was reviewing a Chardonnay. As some of you perhaps know, there's a bit of a stigma around Chardonnay (I've actually been laughed at when I said it was one of my favori...

NV Rondel Cava Brut Vintage:  NV Region: Spain (I think Catalonia)  Winemakers:  Rondel Varietal:  Cava Blend (Xarel-lo, Macabeo, Parellada) Price:  $8.99 at Total Wine Expert Rating:  90 My Rating:  85 The Review: Golf is back next week, and that's a reason to celebrate! Even if you don't like golf, there's always a reason to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than by popping open some sparkling wine?  As I discussed in the previous post, sparkling wine can be a little confusing, so if you haven't read that one I would probably recommend that you do. It might help frame this review a little better. Cava, originally intended to be the Spanish answer to Champagne, has sort of settled into the role of being a lesser-known sparkling wine. Made in the traditional Champagne method but with different grape blends, it achieved a bit of a reputation of being "poor mans Champagne," even though it's totally different. And that's a shame because it'...