Game of Thrones Chardonnay 2016
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Wong
Wilfred
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This elegant white is favored by those who prefer a golden, refined quaff, often enjoyedwith chicken, duck, partridge or pigeon. Raise a goblet to toast each days victories.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: What am I to think when I pick up a bottle of the Game of Thrones Chardonnay? Power, conquest, battles, or all of the above? The 2016 vintage—made by highly regarded winemaker Bob Cabral—delivers as promise and wins the battle. TASTING NOTES: This wine is what I would have expected. Its aromas and flavors of ripe core fruits, savory spices, and enticing oak should pair perfectly with a multi-faceted feast for family and friends. (Tasted: December 7, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
Bob Cabral has been involved in growing and making wine since his childhood helping his grandfather make wine. A fourth generation farmer and grape grower, he took all he learned at the family farm near Escalon, California and applied it to his degrees at Fresno State University.
A fan of Game of Thrones, Bob was challenged to craft wines to match the strength the characters and the terrain of their kingdoms. Bob's meticulousness and patience has yielded wine that embody the spirit of the HBO® series.
While Bob has made wine professionally for over 30 years, he believes he has not made his best wine yet. This coming from someone who planted and produced the first 100-point California Pinot Noir from the Williams Selyem Estate Vineyard where he worked for over 16 years, and has crafted more than 100 wines ranked in the 95 to 100 point category. In 2011, he was honored with the Wine Star Award from the Wine Enthusiast Magazine as Winemaker of the Year.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.
Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.
While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.