July 2009

Honey Moon Washington Mead

I'm rather fond of mead, as I've noted before. While it's made from fermented honey, mead is very much considered a wine. Honey Moon meadery in Bellingham, Washington makes their mead in a funky refurbished glass factory. They use local

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blackberry and fireweed honey. They make their meads (and melomels, traditionally made by infusing mead with fruit or other seasonings) in small batches, so that while there are a number of meads available in bottles, there are also several that are only available in the Bellingham tasting room.

More Washington Chardonnays

Covey Run Chardonnay 2006

According to the Web site, the 2006 harvest was allowed to linger on the vine until fully ripe, then the pressed juice was placed in both stainless steel tanks and oak barrels. The stainless steel tanks were cool-fermented, with the goal of protecting the "fruitiness" of the wine, while the rest of the wine was placed in oak barrels (half French, and half American) on the lees, and stirred frequently during the winter. The site then notes "Those lots with higher acidity levels underwent malolactic fermentation," and then the wine from both barrels and tanks were blended before bottling.

Washington Budget Chardonnay Reviews

Having resolved to give Chardonnay a second chance, and to specifically try more Washington Chardonnays, I thought it was only fair to start by trying a California Chardonnay. I'm looking at the "budget" category, since I'm quite sure my former employer wouldn't pay more than $10.00 a bottle for staff parties, but given the popularity of Chardonnay, that's not really a huge issue; there are far more "budget" tier Chardonnays locally than there are almost any other varietal.