Main Street Winery Chardonnay

When you’re looking for a California Chardonnay, you may seek out one from Russian River Valley, Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley.  But there’s another region you should consider, Santa Barbara County.  This region is far south of the Sonoma/Napa wine country.  In fact, the southernmost part of the county is just over 100 miles north of Los Angeles.  Instinctively you may think it would be warmer this far south and not as good for vineyards, but influence of the Pacific ocean make outstanding conditions for growing wine grapes.  The area gets very little rainfall and a persistent fog from the coast creates cool, cloudy conditions which grapes like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir just love.

The majority of the grapes in the Main Street Winery Chardonnay come from Santa Barbara County, 82% to be exact.  The other 18% of the grapes come from Monterey County, north of Santa Barbara County and just south of San Francisco.

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X Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

The general rule here is that most reviews are for wines that are $20 and under, but I have to admit that that’s not all I drink.  After all, how could I legitimately compare bargain wines to higher-priced ones if I never tasted those.  And every now and then I get samples sent to me for wines that are just over my general price limit.  This is one of those occasions and I’m not going to exclude it just based on price.  If it’s out of your personal price range, then don’t buy it.  But I know that a lot of readers here have a pretty broad price range, and they come here to get ideas for bargains or just to find tasty wines to try.  And I would actually spring a couple extra bucks for this wine.

We’ve reviewed a number of X Winery wines in the past, and admittedly I have yet to find one that I don’t love.  X Winery is based in Napa, California and they produce Amicus wines

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Main Street Winery Cabernet Sauvignon

not that any of them are exceptionally long.  I like to get right to the point.  So, let’s get there.

The 2006 Main Street Winery Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot, with grapes from Lake County (54%), Monterey County (24%) and Santa Barbara County (22%).  The wine did spend 12 months in a combination of French and American oak.

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