Good Morning!

A few weeks ago I got to meet winemaker Cindy Cosco, who is making an amazing unoaked Chardonnay. I am so excited to tell you about this wine but I need to give you some background on Chardonnay first so you can understand my excitement.

Chardonnay is currently taking a beating for it’s reputation as being “cougar juice” and tasting so “woody” and it is so 1990’s. It’s not fair but let’s take a minute and discuss it. Chardonnay is a very important part of the reason California wines are on the radar with world wide wine drinkers back in the late 1970’s.

First, Chardonnay is easy to say and to read on a label so Americans like that. Second, if I look at the current stats on who drinks Chardonnay, you will see that 65% are women over 40 with some level of college education. You will also see that they are fiercely loyal to the brand of Chardonnay they choose. Once they find the brand they like, they stick with it.

Back in 1976 Chateau Montalena, from California, entered an international wine competition and beat the french white burgundies. It was the first time California, Chardonnay was blind tasted next to the french white burgundies officially. (When you see a bottle of French White Burgundy, what you will find in that bottle is the Chardonnay grape, but it was produced in Burgundy, France…it will be great white, with more minerality than most American Chardonnay’s).

But California winemakers seemed to get a little heavy handed at that time with the chardonnay while it was in the oak barrels. Some of the chardonnay tasted so “woody” and “oaky” it was losing it’s appeal. If you have heard the term ABC..Anything but Chardonnay, you know what I am talking about.

So fast forward to today, I started following Cindy on Facebook and Twitter, and I saw several wine blogs about her unoaked Chardonnay and so I ask her to lunch and I was totally entertained and educated about her and her winemaking. Before I bore you too much with my version of her life and the story, check out her website www.passaggio.com. She grew up watching her grandfather make wine and after a highly successful career in law enforcement, she moved to the west coast to pursue wine as a career.

You know I don’t normally say, go buy this wine…but do yourself a favor, find her on the web order a case and prepare for greatness…she also has rose’ (but I have not tried it yet). After hearing her story she and I went to the winery, I could not wait to taste her wines. Her view on winemaking is simple, keep the grapes as close to what they would taste like on the vine. Barrels impart flavors to the wine, so by keeping everything as “pure” as possible she has created something very special.

So I get home with my bottle and she uses a Zork for a closure, and I loved that, but I have 3 friends over and we unzipped the Zork and poured. I did not say a word about what we were trying. My first thoughts were peaches, tangerines and a very crisp, clean and long finish. That was a far call from the almost liquid toothpick thing that happened with the aged in oak barrel chardonnay.
I loved it, I was thinking pairings instantly, goat cheese or shrimp and pasta or grilled chicken, my mind was all over the place.

But what really struck me was the reaction from my pals. The first one said, Oh that’s good…did you make it? ( I wish).The second said I love how vibrant it is, it almost tingles and the third is a die hard wine freak said this was fermented in stainless and the acid levels are so balanced. It is rare all of us agree on anything..it’s a girl thing, we like to debate, but this was a winner, great job Cindy and I can not wait to order a case!

You can not find Passaggio wines on the shelf, so go online, get a case, this should be $30 a bottle and it is about half that. Something new and exciting, I am a HUGE fan!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi

Passaggio wine, greatest wine find of the last 3 months!