My first Chardonnay

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Back in the day, my first quasi-adult wine experiences were a combination of Sutter Home White Zinfandel and wine coolers. While in the Navy, I did the Matilda Bay wine coolers; you remember, they were the one that was packaged in boxes. From there, I had the cheapo favorite, Boone's Farm, which was introduced to me by my dorm room neighbors. After that, I would attend some of the free university and art studio events that would have the ubiquitous jugs, if not bottles, of very cheap reds and whites, so I really couldn't tell you if my first true whites were Chablis or Chardonnay [even though they are both made from the Chardonnay grape, but by different styles]. But I will never forget my first true Chardonnay experience, because of course, there was a woman that went along with it.

When I left college and came back home, there used to be a woman that I was very much attracted to. She was of course older than me, and I would see her walking her small Terriers everyday. However, myself being a very prudent man, I knew that I really didn't have anything to offer her, and in that, never really made any contact. It would be several years later when an opportunity would present itself for us to have a conversation, based upon a mutual area of interest. As time and opportunity would unfold, I would run into her several times over the course of several months, and mostly through the implosion of a dynamic that I would have with another woman her age, reveal that I was attracted to her. From there, we started to form a connection and spend time together.

That Chardonnay moment was when she invited me over to her house one day. I can't remember if we had take out food or not, but I remember the bottle… the year was 1995 and it was a Meridian Chardonnay. And like from what I hear about a junkie's first high off of cocaine of crack, it was a taste that I would never experience again. The taste was so exotic to me, full of flavors and depth that I had not experienced from anything else previously. The finish was smooth and the aroma was something that I never had drank in before. It was great. And for the next two months, I would pursue her while also pursuing that wine.

And like the wine, when she revealed herself to me, I was truly in awe. For all of her seventeen years my senior, she had a physique that could make a woman three years my junior salivate over. Her skin was smooth and silky, her lips perfection, her eyes deep and inviting and her conversation engaging.

Well, the relationship dynamic faded over time, though she and I would kind of revisit several times over the next decade, but I never lost my love of Chardonnay. However, Meridian Chardonnay doesn't taste the same as it did that year, and I don't think that it ever will, and that's not even an emotional call, but one purely palatial.

P.S. She was also a fan of champagne