Layer Cake Virgin Chardonnay, Vintage 2009, $13.99

OK. These days have not gotten any better & I'm surprised I'm not drinking more than I am. I also want you, my readers, to know that I bought & opened this bottle based solely on the fact that it has a screw top (and the fact that I happen to like Layer Cake doesn't hurt).

According to Layer Cake, "virgin" equals "unoaked." Fine. I can deal with unoaked chard, as long as it's not trying to be sauvignon blanc. There's nothing I hate more about wine than one one grape tries to be another.

Sadly, while this wine is forming some pretty heavy legs on the side of the glass, it's not doing anything else to deter me from thinking that this is sauvignon b. It smells fresh & minerally like sauvignon blanc, and it's certainly the same pale yellow shade.

Impressively enough, it doesn't tast exactly like sauvignon blanc. It tastes, truly, like Layer Cake made a vat of chard, a cat of sauvignon blanc, then mixed the two together. I get the creaminess & buttery goodness of chard with the crispness & acidity of sauvignon blanc. The mouthfeel (...) is also closer to sauvignon blanc, thin & silky. There's also no alcohol bite despite this bottle's 13.5%.

I am liking this wine! It's not my favorite, but it just goes to show that I can enjoy something new that I normally wouldn't pick if it's a good vineyard. I so love the Layer Cake! http://www.layercakewine.com//index.cfm

Cheers!

Kate

P.S. I think this blog post gets the win for the most times the term "sauvignon blanc" is used without it actually being about sauvignon blanc. Sad.