Chardonnay Archives - Detroit Duchess

Wine of the Week: Cambria Wines

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cambria Estate Winery for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was approached to create a wine and food pairing for Cambria’s hand-crafted wines which is right up my alley. For those of you not familiar with Cambria, it is a family owned, estate winery from Santa Maria, California and is located in the beautiful Santa Barbara wine country. What is an estate winery you ask? I learned that anytime you see the word “estate winery” it means that they make wine from their own vineyards.

Cambria’s unique wines have received more than 150 reviews of 90+ scores in the past 20 years and they have a lot of different options to choose from specializing mostly in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Their two leading wines are:

Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir

Cambria has four different vineyards and this wine is named after Julia’s Vineyard, which is named after the founder’s youngest daughter. The vineyard was planted in 1991 and offers one of the longest growing seasons in California.

This Pinot has aromas and flavors of dark cherry, strawberry and pomegranate and pairs well with a nice filet mignon or Gruyere cheese.

Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay

Katherine is the owner’s eldest daughter and this vineyard focuses more on fruit development.

This Chardonnay has subtle tropical and citrus aromas. It has a nice crisp finish and pairs well with lobster and Brie or Camembert cheeses.

For my recipe pairing, I would use Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir and make one of my favorite snacks – Caprese skewers! Who doesn’t love Caprese Salad? But when you are at a party, you can’t really sit down and eat a salad. Skewers make it easy to take with you and make them bite sized. Plus you get all the flavors of tomato, basil and mozzarella in one bite.

If you are in Santa Barbara, you can visit the Cambria Estate Winery ® tasting room and check them out for yourself. You can also Visit the Cambria blog for terrific recipes, DIY tips and news from the Cambria Estate Winery Vineyards.

Remember that the legal drinking age is 21 years old, as always please drink responsibly.

What are your favorite wine and food pairings?

Cheers to National Chardonnay Day!

I was getting ready to post my wine of the week when I discovered that today is National Chardonnay Day. Who knew? I had no idea that Chardonnay was America’s best selling white wine. I will take any excuse to try some new wines, so bottoms up!

I was not prepared for this and therefore have no chardonnay in my wine cellar, but after doing some digging I found two mini bottles of Barefoot Chardonnay in our basement bar…SCORE!

My mini bottles of Chardonnay!

My husband and I are packing tonight for our Nashville trip so this will be perfect.

I also stumbled across this great video from FOX News with Tom Matthews, executive editor of Wine Spectator magazine. There are a lot of great tidbits here.

National Chardonnay Day presents an opportunity for me to buy some Chardonnay, so here are a few that I would like to try:

Coppola Sofia Chardonnay – $19

Sofia Chardonnay

Bennett Lane Los Carneros Reserve Chardonnay 2009 – $45

Bennett Lane Chardonnay Reserve

Goosecross Cellars 2009 Napa Valley Estate Chardonnay – $36

Goosecross Cellars Chardonnay

We visited these wineries during our trip to Napa and they were all fantastic finds. I am new to the Chardonnay game so I definitely need recommendations. I am usually a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio drinker for white wines.

Let’s take this opportunity to try something new and raise our glasses for National Chardonnay Day, cheers!

For more of my Wine of the Week posts, click Wine of the Week Bennett Lane 2010 Maximus.