As with most of my recent reviews, I feel like there is a need for a couple of disclaimers.  First, as you probably have already surmised, this is a review of a white wine, which is rather scarce on this site.  Simply put, we’re not huge white wine drinkers.  Second, as you’ve also probably already surmised, this wines is a Sebastiani – a winery we collectively like quite a lot.

So why do I even have a bottle of Chardonnay to begin with?  The answer is quite simple, my friends:  I needed it to cook with.  It’s a shame to use a wine just to cook with, though, and so I’ll pour a glass and enjoy it while I endure one of my other jobs, sorting through pictures.

So first things first: this is a great wine to cook with.  I’ve used it in two recipes so far, and I’ve been astonished by the flavor it brings to my meals.  In both cases, it turned an otherwise unremarkable sauce into something approaching divine, and for that alone I’ll continue to buy it. But really – how is it to drink?

I suppose the best thing I can say from the start is that I can’t find much to dislike about the Sebastiani, as I do with so many white wines.  It’s not too sweet or too fruity or too tart or too grapefruity or really too anything. There’s something about drinking it that is light and smooth and buttery and complex, and as I bring the wine into my mouth I’m instantly reminded of the wonderful flavors it brought to my food.  Even though each dish I made with it was quite different, I can somehow taste each of them in the wine, as if somehow those wonderful meals have been reborn in some small way by remembering them in the glass.  Indeed, if I had to nitpick at all, I would say that the Chardonnay is almost too subtle and smooth and unassuming – it is a wine I could drink without any thought, and in the end that’s not what I’m looking for.  It, like so many subtle white wines, lacks the true depth and complexity I taste in my beloved reds.

It is, then, perhaps, a drink for people who want something light and airy, subtle and not like wine – just a taste, but not the full course.

Score: 86