Last Thursday, Taste on 23rd hosted a special wine tasting for Cave De Lugny, a cooperative of 250 wine-growing estates in the Burgundy region of France.
Winemaker Gregoire Pissot was on hand to explain the three different unoaked Chardonnays we would be sampling.
Our first taste was the 2010 La Cote Blanche Maĉon-Villages Chardonnay.
Gregoire explained that this wine, unlike the other two we would be sampling, was made with chardonnay grapes from a number of different vineyards. With its notes of citrus, flowers, and honey, this Chardonnay would be the perfect antidote to a hot summer afternoon.
Next, we tried the 2010 Les Charmes Maĉon-Lugny Chardonnay.
This wine is made with grapes from the Les Charmes vineyard which grows musk chardonnay grapes. These grapes are similar to muscat grapes and generally create a richer wine than those made with the usual chardonnay varietals. This wine, with its balance of sweetness and acidity, was my favorite of the three. You can find the 2009 Les Charme Maĉon-Lugny Chardonnay here for a great price.
We finished the tasting with a sample of the 2009 La Carte Maĉon-Lugny Chardonnay.
Made from grapes from the La Carte vineyard, this Chardonnay was light, with delicate hints of fruits and honey. Gregorie admitted that this is his personal favorite!
The three Cave De Lugny wines we sampled are available at Taste and at some of Portland’s Whole Foods. You can find out if they’re available near you by visiting distributor Pasternak Wine Import’s website at http://pasternak-wines.simpleflame.com/find-our-wines. Bottles of the Les Charmes and La Carte retail around $15 while the La Cote is around $10.
To complement our wine, Taste provided a lovely spread of snacks, including baguettes from Lovejoy Bakers, salami from Olympic Provisions, and their own highly addictive truffle oil popcorn.
Taste opened last November and is a wine bar and bottle shop. They serve small plates and desserts in addition to wine, beer, and champagne cocktails. Happy hour is every day from 3-6pm and 9:30-10:30pm and includes $5 glasses of wine, $5 champagne cocktails, $3 beers and $1-$5 snacks.
If you’d like more information on French chardonnays, Burgundy region wines, or Cave De Lugny, you can find a winemaker video interview with Edward Cassenet of Cave de Lugny here: Cave de Lugny Winemaker Interview.
Katie Mitchell is a freelance writer in the Portland, Oregon area, with a penchant for great wine, good, and all things cocktails. Katie has a Masters degree from Emerson College in Boston, and has written for Time Out Boston, Back Bay Patch, City’s Best Boston and Travel + Leisure.com. She can be reached for reviews or coverage at pdxhappyhourhoney2@gmail.com or on Twitter @happyhourhoneys.