2006 Montes Classic Chardonnay (Curico Valley, Chile)

If you want to know what not to do with oak barrels, this is the wine to try. I'm a huge fan of South American reds, especially malbec. But this Chilean white from the Curico Valley was a saddening letdown. As soon as I uncorked the bottle, it was like a tree limb to the face. The traces of mango and pineapple on the nose where obscured and almost indiscernible. On the mouth, I found sour, even puckerable green apple, which I typically like in chardonnays but this was entirely fronted and disconnected from the mid-palette. Hardly any finish. On the whole, this wine was like three people screaming at me simultaneously while oak blasted over the loudspeaker (in Spanish). And not in a good way.

According to the label, this wine spent 75% of its time in American oak barrels (the website claims both 50% and 60% so I'm not sure which number to settle on). Now I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that chardonnays shouldn't be oaked any longer than 50%, even in American barrels. Whatever the rule of thumb may be, this wine obviously spent too much time oaking it up.

In Montes's defence, this is their bottom of the shelf wine. And given a year or two, this wine may come together (it's still hot off the presses). I found it at World Market for $8 and perhaps expected too much. Maybe I'll have better luck with the malbec I picked up.

But despite the bad wine, I did try a new recipe tonight: based on a book recipe but adapted (according to some left-over ingredients from the other night). Summer corn, shrimp, and three-cheese tortellini with tomatoes and olives, simmered in a butter, garlic, basil sauce. The original recipe called for prosciutto and no olives (which was really good) but I thought I'd put a twist on it.

In other news, I start my new job at USC tomorrow (which is why the wine was such a letdown), so expect some news in that corner. I'm terribly excited but still a bit unsure of what I'll be doing. In the other corner (and yes, expect a battle) I'm trying to start up my languages again, having lain four-months dormant (too long). And soon, I hope to get a review of Brian Greene's book on here. Soon.