In the meantime, we’ve gotten pretty hooked on the various Red Blends that are out there, especially the ones claiming to be “soft”.
Linganore Winecellars has an excellent soft red blend called Retriever Red featuring none other than my favorite Chambourcin mixed with Cab.
I could drink this wine all night (and I did) The Chambourin influence is very noticeable with the whole fruity, vanilla, woody oak, smooth finish thang coming through loud and clear.
Retriever Red is a terrific wine to pair up with pretty much anything or just put a straw in the bottle and call it a night.
No nasty revenge headache and I would be confident to serve this at a party or to send a bottle to my mom as a gift.
Wine barn. Linganore Winecellars. Photo by d.Nelle Vincent
2014 Chardonnay from Linganore Winecellars
“It has a looonnnnggg buttery finish”. The bartender pursed her lips while making a socket puppet shape with her hand.
I would feel like an idiot saying that, with accompanying gesticulation, but what I will say is that if grapes and butter had a baby, it would be this wine.
Xavier and I drove out for a visit this past Sunday. We wanted to taste the dry wine list; specifically looking for a Chardonnay and a Cabernet-esque dry red.
I wanted to like the one called White Raven because the name is cool, and I expected to like the Chardonnay Reserve 2015 because it’s expensive. Neither of these things came to pass.
Apparently cool names and high prices do not necessarily mean better. As far as I’m concerned they hit us with their best shot right out of the gate. The Chardonnay 2014 is everything they claim it to be. It has zero percent residual sugar and is quite literally smooth like butta’, which makes it deliciously dangerous becauseit is also 11.5% alcohol.
We bought a bottle and, at check out, they asked if we would like for them to open it for us so we could enjoy it there. I said, “Only if we can stay the night.”
Lightweights…
Pro tip: If you put a straw in the bottle, you can claim to have had “only one drink.”
Linganore Winecellars. Mt. Airy, MD
I specialize in making nice places look like run down abandoned buildings but Linganore Winecellars is, in fact, quite lovely.
Lucky for me, the weather was cold and there were not many people milling around outside but, inside on a Sunday afternoon, the scene is warm and bustling with thirsty wine connoisseurs.
Linganore Winecellars. Mt. Airy, MD
As previously mentioned, I was looking for a Chardonnay and a dry red. We didn’t buy a red but the one I liked the most was the Chambourcin. It’s very dry, with zero percent residual sugar, super smooth, pleasantly oaky, and likely the topic of a separate blog post. 🙂
Xavier in his new Mini Cooper Clubman. Linganore Winecellars. Mt. Airy, MDSleeping baby grape vines. Linganore Winecellars. Mt. Airy, MD
