A great match!!!

Tonight's fare was crab cakes, cole slaw and caprese salad. I narrowed my thoughts to a Sauvignon blanc and a California Chardonnay, and ultimately opted for the latter. I thought that the extra components added to the crab to make the crab cakes would add some body to the dinner and thought that a Chardonnay with some body might work better. This time, I think I got it right!

I selected a Hartford Court Far Coast Vineyard Chadonnay from Sonoma Coast. I was a little bit concerned that the 2013 vintage might have left it "past-prime", but my fears were unfounded. This is a beautiful, perfectly balanced Chardonnay. The slightly golden color reflects its age, but I really did not detect any of that in its presentation. (I am very sensitive to oxidation (not favorably), but I detected none). The wine displays beautiful aromas of almost tropical fruits (pineapple, mango), quince, butter and vanilla. It has a medium amount of acidity, but enough to keep it lively. It is medium to almost full-bodied, with lots pineapple, yellow and green apple, citrus and pear flavors, supplemented with obvious downstream effects of malolactic fermentation (not to an extensive degree) and judicious oak aging.

On its own, this is a terrific wine. When paired with the crab cakes, it is hard to imagine a better match. The body of the wine was exactly on par with that of the crab cakes. The seafood-like "edge" in the crab cakes was perfectly softened by this very round, soft-edged, and gentle wine. (I am guessing that a Sauvignon blanc would also have been a nice pairing, highlighting other components of the wine and the crab cakes). The Chardonnay was perfectly acceptable as a pairing with the caprese, but may not have been my first choice in wines, should that have been the main dish.

We tried to pair this with our dessert, coconut macaroons and strawberries. The macaroons did not fare too poorly, but I found the pairing with the strawberries to bring out the worst in the wine, which suddenly lost all of its fruit and felt very "flat" on my palate.

As a final analysis, I would say this this is a very fine wine, indeed, even with 12 years of bottle age and is a terrific pairing for crab cakes (and likely other medium-bodied seafood dinners), but I would not pair it with a strawberry-based dessert!