Valley of the Moon Chardonnay

After reading an interesting article about California versus European wines, I decided I give a few a try. The gist of the article was the thought that a 90 point wine was a 90 point wine regardless of its point of origin. This is to say that Californians are judged by the same standards as Europeans. As a result, if a California wine is highly rated, it should meet the same standards as its European counterparts.

I've always found Californians to be too flamboyant. The wines, that is. The people that run the wineries in California are always doing stuff to the wine to make it exciting. They want it to be memorable, but usually end up making it just plain bad. Europeans don't do that-- they let wine be itself, and enjoy it for what it is meant to be.

But this one was a 90 point chardonnay, and it was in my price range. And it was wine. Just wine. Not a bunch of pretentious flavoring to enhance the wine drinking experience. Just a good glass of wine. Not great... which was disappointing for a 90 pointer. If it had been unrated, it would have been a 7.

I'm going to say its a 6 of 10