{"id":2069,"date":"2012-07-06T09:11:40","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T16:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/captionid=attachment_2071align=alignnonewidth=300"},"modified":"2012-07-06T09:11:40","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T16:11:40","slug":"chardonnay-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threeadventure.com\/hootnannie\/2012\/07\/06\/chardonnay-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Chardonnay Symposium 2012 Rocked"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know what I love? Wine. And you know what else I love? Focusing in on one grape (like Chardonnay, for example) and attempting to learn about it and enjoy all of its nuances. We had that opportunity this past weekend at the Chardonnay Symposium<\/a> thanks to Chris Slaughter, who did an outstanding job along with the rest of the Symposium staff and volunteers.<\/p>\n

And just to reiterate, I did say Chardonnay…just thought I’d rub that in again to all those ABC’ers out there…you know who you are!<\/p>\n

How About that Chardonnay???<\/h3>\n

Prior to the Grand Tasting on Saturday we attended the seminar which was moderated by Steve Heimoff (wine writer) , whom I am not normally a huge fan of but I will give him props, I thought he moderated the panel quite well. The seminar was great, there were six winemakers on the panel and it was fantastic hearing their thoughts on the wines and how they are affected by their respective terriors as we went through tasting.<\/p>\n

My favorite thoughts from the seminar came from two of the people on the panel, and basically they were saying “buy what you like and don’t buy what you don’t like”…bravo gentlemen!! The point being that criticizing wine that you don’t like is stupid…which I tend to agree with. It goes back to my thoughts on people that say they “hate Chardonnay” or “I do not drink Chardonnay ever” or “oaked Chardonnay is horrific”…get over it people. We all have opinions…take it down a notch.<\/p>\n

I really think the panel did a great job, there was a good spread of stainless and oaked Chards as well as a lot of great stories behind the wines.<\/p>\n

After the seminar we headed out for the Grand Tasting…let the fun begin! There was an amazing group of food vendors there as well as wineries from all over, pouring their Chardonnays. \u00a0I will get more into that info in our next post about the Chard Symposium in which we\u2019ll also share the pictures we got. It was a beautiful day in Santa Maria at the Byron Winery<\/a> facility\u2026perched up on a lovely wine nook (I think I just mean a hill) overlooking the vineyards, you really couldn\u2019t ask for a better venue.<\/p>\n

So until next time Chard lovers, why don\u2019t you let us know if you like Chardonnay or if you don\u2019t? If you DO, let us know some of your favorite Chardonnays\u2026always fun to compare notes!! Cheers and Happy Trails!<\/p>\n