Chardonnay Throwdown: U.S. vs. France

What do you get when you take two foodies who love wine, two eager wine glasses with two dinner plates a waiting and two oaked Chardonnays? A big 'ole  throwdown of a United States Californian Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands vs. a French Chardonnay from the Montagny region that we paired with the delicious lobster scampi pasta.

We wanted to mix things up a bit and do a post comparing two wines of the same varietal from different regions. We owed everyone a lobster pasta dish from one of our earlier posts and decided to use that as a platform to get us two bottles of wine and pit them against each other.

I picked up a bottle of the Mer Soleil 2008 Chardonnay while Dave opted for a 2006 Chardonnay put out by winemaker Joseph Drouhin. Both are oaked meaning that they are fermented in oak barrels which impacts the flavor (we touched on this in a previous post). Both of us come from very different places on the oak vs. un-oaked debate. I prefer oaked while Dave finds un-oaked much more food friendly. For this post, however, we decided to match up two oaked wines.

The end result, I liked the California Chardonnay better. I like a big, buttery, oaky Chardonnay...it's big like the women from Texas wear their hair. It's buttery and fruitful on the nose with honeysuckle and lemon with that great oak taste...we even detected some pollen. The color is a beautiful yellow straw and you can pick that up in a taste, almost barnyard-like. It's a medium finish that leaves the tongue feeling like it just ate a big meal.

I however, (Dave here) preferred the French Chardonnay. A little lighter with accents of musty lemon, this wine had a more delicate aroma, a beautifully round texture, medium bodied golden fruit notes and a crisp minerality. Both wines were fabulous, but all in all, the California Chardonnay was our favorite pairing for the lobster scampi. A classic American crustacean meets a classic American style Chardonnay....simply delicious. If you are new to Chardonnay you have most likely tried the California style. The French Chardonnays can be more elusive and expensive at times, but they are worth seeking out. Often French Chardonnays are less oaky than their American cousins. Try for yourself and see which one you prefer...either way both were wonderful with the lobster pasta listed below.

We decided to bring in the big guns for the pictures on this one. Tricia's friend Regina Chaperon is a fantastic photographer and we decided to pay her off with some food and wine in exchange for her talents.  She did the Jam Jar photos as well as these and works with restaurants in the area for their website photos.


Lobster Scampi

1 lb cooked Lobster
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 lemon
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock (homemade is best)
1 lb linguini
salt and pepper to taste

Get your skillet good and hot and saute the garlic in half the butter. Add the wine, broth salt and pepper to taste. Simmer all of this until it reduces by half. Add the lobster and simmer till hot. Add the remaining butter and simmer for a minute. Meanwhile have your linguini cooked and ready to serve. To plate: Place a serving of linguini on a plate, add 1/4 of the lobster plus a ladel or so of the sauce. Zest the lemon with a grater (microplane) over the pasta (about a quarter of the lemon). Top with fresh parsley. Drizzle with a touch of olive oil.

Enjoy!   You can repeat this process to make 4 servings.

Cheers,
Dave and Trish