This Wine On Wednesday is a twofer and sorry, but I couldn’t resist adding the line above from one of Billy Joel’s greatest hits. Last Sunday, I tasted some exceptional sparkling and white wines at a bridal shower. The standout wine at this event was the Girard Sauvignon Blanc. Now, let me clue you in with the fact that I usually don’t care for Blancs because they taste rather bland on my palette, but not this one! It’s a Chardonnay drinkers wine, but without the oakiness. This wine has great depth of flavors with lemon at the forefront. The finish is smooth and citrusy. I enjoyed it with a mushroom and chicken baked pasta which tasted phenomenal together. Actually, I have another Blanc to write about so maybe I was just drinking the wrong Blancs in the past.
You can find Girard at Costco for under $20.
Rating: 🍷🍷🍷out of 4 wine glasses 
Later that evening my husband planned a cozy dinner with two friends he’s known since high school and their families. They all brought over their best wines and cheeses to sample. What a spread! Since it was Sunday and it was back to work for everyone the next day, we saved a few bottles to open another time. The favorite wine by far that we tried was the J Davies 2005 Cabernet. This wine is grown in the Diamond Mountain District of Napa. (I didn’t know there was such an area until now.) This wine was extremely complex. There is no better way to describe it because you could taste so many things in just a sip. It wasn’t like the young, juicy, vibrant wines I normally drink. This was more refined and slowly opened up the more I drank. I definitely tasted an earthy, loamy flavor right from the start. The finish was smooth and rich with flavors of cocoa and vanilla. This wine is 83% Cabernet and 17% Malbec. The grapes grow in clay-laden soil on the Diamond Mountain hillside. My husband’s friend and his wife visited this winery and joined their wine club so this will have to be another one to add to our ever-growing list of places to visit in Napa. If you’re looking for a special occasion wine to drink or know a few folks who appreciate good wine, then go for this one! Oh, another fun fact on this winery is that they specialize in sparkling wine and it is the official sparkling wine for the White House since Nixon was in office.
Rating: 🍷🍷🍷🍷out of 4 wine glasses
Girard Photo courtesy of girardwinery.com
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