Does the idea of a farm fresh dinner get you excited? Would it help to add in that this farm is a goat dairy that makes cheese? If you know me, then you know I was sold on this idea! Neil and I decided to group together our birthday and anniversary celebrations from the Spring to gift ourselves this farm dinner. As some of you know, we have been staying in Durham for the last few months. Durham is a pretty hip place that is a former tobacco town. That means there’s tons of old factories turned into commercial and residential spaces but not much for farmland or country. Once we got the idea to visit a farm for dinner, we had to figure out where to go. Goat Lady Dairy is about an hour and a half west of Durham, but I was sold once I watched their cheesemaking video online, http://www.goatladydairy.com. It was settled then, we’d pick the date and make our reservation.
When we came up with the idea for Chardon-May, I wanted to find wines from less common growing areas than most people are familiar with for Chardonnay. We have enjoyed Chardonnay on many occasions and it is a wine that can range in flavor quite a bit. I was also curious how many of them would be lighter and fruitier than the heavily oaked versions we knew from California.
During a set of recent Instagram posts, I found out that Neil and I have tried quite a few Languedoc wines. This came as a bit to a surprise to me. We know that we always enjoy trying new wines but who knew that we’d been gravitating to a specific French wine region? I’d say part of the reason we were unaware of these wines all carrying a similar trait is because Old World wines are labeled pretty differently than New World wines.
This Chardon-May entry features a Chardonnay from Argentina and a cheese from Spain. We found this wine, as well as the Australian Chardonnay from our last entry at Wine Authorities. Also similar to the previous entry, the cheese is from Whole Foods. I love cheese and they have such a terrific selection of cheeses from around the world there! In order to celebrate WineAndCheeseFriday, we brought in guest tasters, Jo and Francis, our landlords in Durham, NC. They both enjoy wine and figured they’d give wine and cheese pairing with us a try. I didn’t realize Jo is usually an AnythingButChardonnay kind of girl when we invited them up so we’ll see how it goes.
Where do Chardonnay grapes grow? Have you ever looked into it? The more popular areas are California and France, but as you know we like to explore outside the box. As we went through our previous Chardonnay entries we were really surprised to find out that we’ve mainly tasted California chardonnay. We’re taking the opportunity with Chardon-May to try some of those other regions.
This next Chardon-May entry features the Eve Chardonnay from Charles Smith Wines. Charles Smith Wines is a brand from Washington that features funky black and white label designs. We’ve tried a handful of their wines but this will be our first time with their Chardonnay. Come to think of it, this might be our first time trying a Washington Chardonnay too.* The cheese we’ll be tasting for this entry is from North Carolina, and yup, you guessed it, it’s another one from the Durham Farmer’s Market. We really lucked out with the selection of cheeses available there. We hope you enjoy the second Chardon-May pairing of Eve Chardonnay and Rocket’s Robiola.