California Chardonnay Wine Tasting

Gary Vaynerchuk tastes three serious and highly rated Chardonnays and has some big announcements.

Gary: Hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV. I’m your host, Gary Vaynerchuk and this my friends is the thunder show a.k.a. the internet’s most passionate wine program and it is good to be here. There’s just something still really warm and fuzzy when there’s nobody to the left or right of me. We’re here, you’re sitting there looking awfully gorgeous and we’re just in our normal confines feeling good, no flip cam just where we belong. Don’t you agree? Matt: An old school show. Gary: I agree, an old school show and very serious, not old school chardonnay today on the thunder show. Three bombastic, uh huh, bombastic chardonnays with majorly pressed, the Brewer-Clifton in which is a producer that’s gotten a lot of press release, the Dumol is a 94 to 96 Parker scored wine and a 95 point spectator scored chardonnay, at 58 bones. It is a chardonnay throw down episode where the bowlers come out and play, Jay Z, P Diddy, all hanging out here at the table. Going to drink these vinos because I’m really curious, I was in a weird mood I couldn’t figure out what am I going to drink today when I talk about the thanksgiving secret pack. Matt, link it up. That’s right. You’ve all been asking, it’s now available on Thanksgiving Day. Now again, I cut in a little bit tight this year. So I’m a little worried. I still think if you order it tonight; tomorrow you’re good. If you’re on the west coast you may have to go two day air but free shipping, great price. Come on I think it’s under 70 bones, 69.99 I’m not even sure, but I should be sure. So you know what, I’m sorry. I’m going to have to check. 69.99 And free shipping so I’m excited about that. Four bottles of wine, take a price. Good average. There’s one serious one in here, and then I’ll tape ahead and you and I will share Thanksgiving Day again together. Please get involved in this. This has been a big thing for a while. Then we will have a lot of one wine so we probably will sell out so if you want the Thanksgiving Pack like we’ve done in the past, please get on board. The episode will air probably around noon, one o’clock on Thanksgiving Day. I know some people will eat early Matt, and of course some people will eat on Black Friday. And so I’m excited about that. So please, Matt linking it up, very excited about that. The Thanksgiving Secret Pack is on again. This is the third, third year I think. A big show to beat for a nickel. You guys have one, the right to be on my show and I’m going to fly you both out if you both picked the right score. The Vikings lion’s game, looking forward to having you here in New York. Tomorrow I’m in Connecticut, at a book signing. Matt, link that up. I know you link up everything. Friday I’m going to be in Oklahoma City which I’m very excited about. Big shout out to all those guys looking forward to it and also big shout out to everybody who picked up the springs on Cinderella wine. That is going to be a Thanksgiving deal pretty soon. Matt, link up Cinderella wine. I want to get into Cinderella wine a little bit at the end of the show. Remind me if I don’t remember. You’re really bad at remembering, Matt so you’re going to have to write it in your hand or something. Big announcement—first week of December, do not buy any gifts for anybody, we’re going to be doing something very similar to this. Where you going to get free bottles of wine that are worth like 300 bucks, on wine searcher and that would be like 89.99. The wineries are not letting us even say what the wines are because the prices are so low. I can tell it later, another time. Brewer-Clifton. 2008. Sta. Rita Hills. Chardonnay. 14.6% alcohol content. 90 points Josh Reynolds. $35.00. Greg Brewer, Steve Clifton, two of my all-time favorite people in the wine industry. They’ve been making this wine for quite a while now and really one of the great chardonnay producers in America. And I was in the mood for some oak, bombastic, the oak monster doesn’t scare me today. You know, little bothered action. You know what? The bothered bandit has not made an appearance on the thunder show. Matt, are we total like two, three years for the bothered bandit? I’m telling you the bothered bandit has a substantial shot for making a cameo. I like how he wears his eye patch. He’s not the bothered pirate, sniffy sniff time. But before we do notice the golden calmness, let’s pour out a little bit for all the vaneyniacs that aren’t with us anymore. A little sniffy sniff. 08. One of my firsts 08 California wines geez. 15,000 bottles produced, it’s about 12,000-13,000 cases. Very kind of like, smoky like dirty ancient smoke. Kind of like you know, if we want to like, you know the Flemington area in Jersey where the people drag on you know, kind of smoky, English town. A little petrol as well, very much. You know, supped out kind of Honda action on the nose. There’s a little bit of banana peel that rounds up there. And you don’t want a banana peel on the drag racing spill and you know kind of produced cartoons. Anyway, very intriguing in different nose. Very young wine, maybe some of that action is going on. Let’s give it a whirl. First thing’s first. Eye pop—very intrigued by the acid in this wine. Everything I expect from these guys, you know, big California sunshine, goopy all that stuff, actually. You know what, bring that in. But this has more of an acid kind of reflex almost Macon-like reminds me of like Chablis with a little bit of like burnt wood action around the side. Thank you, right here Matt. Thank you so much. This is what I was talking about earlier. We’ll get into that. Some of this marker, Jesus it’s like I’m high already. Wow actually you know what? Get rid of this. This is like, kind of totally altered then the nose of the wines. So there’s almost like this Chablis-like characteristic on the nose. Leave it right there. Yeah, Chablis- like characteristic but a little burnt wood so it’s kind of like, half you know, half and half. It’s a half you know crazy right? Matt: Strong Gary: Jesus. Half Macon white burgundy that kind of stuff. And then half California sunshine which I like, bounce is key in chardonnays. This surprises me quite a bit I, I you know. Come on, I can’t win. I, I want to do a show like goopy, okay, buttery shorts and the first one from a traditionally kind of, that kind of producer, they want a little bit of a different angle with 08. I like the crispiness, the clean and this tropical guava, kiwi flavor that I get in the mouth. I like the acid. Good wine. Wow, I agree with Joshua. Also I think 90 points is a good price point for this. Good rating for this, I like the price point. I think it delivers for that, 35 bones. It’s got enough of a distinction and a quality to it that I like. 90+ points; good wine, good start for our show. Matt, you watch that in Oprah last night? You watch the Oprah? Yeah it was good. Everyone is talking about it. It’s huge. Alright. Matt: You bet you. Gary: Dumol, 2007. Great vintage, Russian River. Isobel chardonnay. $64.00, but 94 to 96 Robert Parker, which is an outrageous, outrageous rating. As a matter of fact, big ups to Robert Parker, posted on his forum today that I have a career in motivational speaking. 94 to 96 points Robert Parker, $64.00, you can see the golden locks, the 1984 circa Hulk Hogan hair color coming through on this. Just a really pretty color. Catch them up, pretty. Let’s give this a sniffy sniff, there we go. Alright let me get, let me get really, you know. It gets me thunder, get me linked kid. This is a big nose, huge oakiness coming through, and big apple flavors, a little bit of creaminess. Yeah, I mean you can just, you can smell the pencil shavings coming through a little crème brûlée action on the nose. Big nose, very aromatically exciting. Let’s give it a whirl. Wow. It’s got this immense, you know. I’m going to get excited, Matt. I’m moving now. It’s got like this immense kind of, let’s put it here. Let’s give it the credit it deserves. It’s got this crazy immense kind of like, like honey viscosity. It’s very thick and I almost feel like I want to take this wine and spread in you know, It’s like, I feel like I want to put this and like spread it on stuff. It’s got that kind of viscosity, very thick wine. Just thick. You know, I like thick sometimes. You know, so just very big mouth feel, good solid structure backbone flash. Beautiful fig flavors on the mouth feel which I like quite a bit. Integrated with you know, a little bit of like a melon, a cantaloupe action and a beautiful golden apple greeny smith baked apple pie. Almost like and then you know this undeniable kind of like little scoop. You know like the butter, Matt, when I go to the restaurant I really like the butter that’s soft. Don’t bring out the butter to my table that’s been in the fridge that I have to like you know like this butter you can’t, like come on, butter. No, you want the soft, like that butter. I've got excited bout the butter. I want the soft butter, you know I want to take a little bit of sea salt and put on the butter. That kind of butter flavor on the backend. That’s soft butter, not that chill cold, I’ve-got-no-flavor cold butter that gets me so pissed. Butter pissed. This was like a creamy butter bandit action going on. I like it, very good than the last wine. I’m not as enthusiastic as Parker 94 to 96. It was a 92+ wine. It’s a very good, very well made and really stands up to many 50, 60, 70 dollar white burgundy wines. I think we see that sticker price on the California chardonnay and is a little shocked. And so, about sticker shocked by this wine, I’d like to see some more complexities to pump get it really pump it out, and maybe a little harsh on the 92+ in this wine. It’s very good, very different than the last wine. You know, that one was just, had a little more, you know more balance. This is more on that over the top caliber sunshine, but it like it. Like it shows that Russian River sensibility. I like it, it’s a good wine. It’s going good. I was, I’m going to, I’m in a very, I probably did a very bad thing today in the show by going something with something I was craving. I had this craving for this big California chardonnays, Matt. And so I’m probably being maybe in a weird way nicer to them than I normally would be. It’s kind of a rare thing I haven’t done that before like a after a craving. Ramey 06 Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay which is an amazing vineyard. Also Russian River. 58 US bones, 95 points wine spectator. Pick up some wine spectator. Congratulations they just announced their wines of the year. Have you been, did you hear the buzz story about that? Matt: Yeah I saw it on forums. Gary: Very nice. Alright. So Much is on the Forms, I love it. Alright lets give it a sniffy sniff. Definitely the least aromatic of the three, and it’s an 06 so it’s got the most time to kind of open up and blossom and flower out. It gets us exciting. Not doing it for me aromatically a little bit of apple slice but nothing crazy. Let’s give it a whirl. Something is very disappointing. It’s got a very good acidity, which I’m really impressed with. It’s actually quite sharp; it’s almost bringing out the razor blade. Little heat yes, its room temperature so I respect that. 14.5 almost feel like its a little higher, but traumatically boring. You know, just as I’m drinking it, I don’t know if you even notice my face. Just really not showing a really distinct flavor profile really lacking any kind of nuisance or charisma. Whatever you’re really looking for, the Ramey I think is probably one of the top producers in you know, wine makers in all of California so this is quite disappointing for me. As you can see my energy level just took a, took a shot in the pants. You know punch and that hurts. I’m going to score this wine some 89 points. I do not agree with the wine spectator. I don’t see what he is seeing in this wine at that level. It’s an epic score. To me this is very run-over-the-mill 25-30 dollar California chardonnay. There are a lot of wines that act just like this that half the price. You know, let’s give it one more shot maybe I’m missing something here from my palate. I don’t see it. I don’t see it, now from my palate everybody’s got their own trust yours. But I just don’t see it guys, I’m not really feeling it and, I’m going to score it 89 points and give it a major pass. 89 points is still good score. I think it’s a well-made wine but you know you get pumped. It’s like Bruno. Come on, what else with you man. Giants have the best weak of the season, you know not even playing. Colts dominoes still pumped to themselves. Colts did their thing. I really appreciate all the lurkers coming out. There are a lot of lurkers coming out and leave comments, Matt. Once got 500 comments, you know they come out for free stuff, you know. Once again showing your true colors, lurkers you know. You know watching for years and now you get a free trip to New York or also you just want to leave a comment after two years. I’m just kidding. I really appreciate everybody coming out. A bunch of you have you know I saw have been watching for a long time and finally left a comment so that means a lot to me. Question that we’re doing the Thanksgiving Secret Pack, very excited about it. Hope you’ll participate. Four amazing wines—one is epic, so please order that and taste along with me on Thanksgiving. Where are you having your Thanksgiving? And what are you bringing to the party? What are you bringing to the table? You know, not physically. You bring your sense of humor, story telling, to take care of the kids, your cooking, you setting up the TV you putting your fat ass on the couch unbuckling your belt and bringing nothing to the table. What are you specifically bringing to the table? Please leave a comment. You, oh Matt you did it. Matt: You were testing me. Gary: I wasn’t. I thought you completely forgot. Yes. Thanks so much for everyday watching. I'm doing a little not sales speech but I’m excited about this—Cinderella wine. If you’re not paying attention to what we’re doing with this, it’s special, it can really hook you up and we’re doing something insane. We’re going to be selling three packs, all that’s it Matt. Go get it. Yeah let’s show it, let’s show it through the window. Matt: This is kind of thick glass. Gary: Right. Showing you some three packs, and probably the first week of December, we’re going to do some three packs. I negotiated some deals with some wineries but the prices are so obnoxious, that they don’t want to get hurt brand equity wise. They don’t want to you know get embarrassed. And so they do not kind of letting us selling them individually in Cinderella so we’re going to put them into packs and so the packs are going to be worth like 300 bucks but sold for like 89.99. And so holiday gifts, bottles for your self here. But you know, this is going to be epic, it’s going to be legendary one of the legendary things we’ve been doing here while in library history, on Cinderellawine.com probably first we could, we have not announced it yet. You could probably see things being braid, I’m working on it previously but it’s going to be big, big, big. Every wine fan, every wine friend you know you need to tell about this. It’s going to be a six day thing, six packs on six days or six days it’s going to be pretty amazing and so I really am happy about it. It’s one of the best thank you’s, we’ve ever done on our show so. You know, in our business and anything like that. Awesome excited about that? Going to work on that right now. Hope you guys are doing sensational miss you answer the question, with a little bit of me, changing the wine world.