Southern Point Chardonnay, to be found at WALGREEN'S (you heard me!) for $2.99, is a really good bottle of wine. Granted, I liked Red Bicyclette better, but that's because I'm a sucker for French wine and it was dryer than most chardonnays. However, Southern Point (did I mention that you buy it at WALGREEN'S?) is a nice, traditional chardonnay with a slightly but not overly sweet bouquet and a clean finish. I also bought a bottle of their cabernet sauvignon and will dutifully report back to you when I open it.
Tonight we finished up the Australian Wild Ferment chardonnay, which tasted a lot better to me after my day at work. Suffice to say, Monday lived up (or down) to its reputation. I made Balsamic Chicken Breasts for dinner, along with spinach tortellini, roasted asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, and garlic toast. The Balsamic Chicken Breasts are a marvelously easy recipe that I got from Epicurious.com, and you can look it up, but if you're too lazy, I'll tell you how to do it: marinate four boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a pan containing about 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper, and Herbs d'Provence. They don't have to marinate very long -- I put them in while I was putting the water on to boil for the spinach tortellini and getting the asparagus ready to roast. Fire up the grill and cook the chicken breasts. When they're almost done, spread blue cheese or feta or nothing at all if you're not a cheese type person on the top side of the breast and let it melt for a minute or two.
The balsamic vinegar keeps the chicken breasts incredibly moist and flavorful. Whatever leftovers you have can be reheated quite nicely the next day for lunch or dinner.
I'm off to a good start this week -- let's hope I don't get a case of cooking ennui by Thursday!
I tend to favor the sweeter Chardonnays myself. So there Southern Point sounds like it would work. And at that price, how could I go wrong?
ReplyDeleteExactly! Even if Two Buck Chuck is a dollar cheaper, this one is worth a try.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to hear how the cabernet sauvignon stacks up to Trader Joe's "Two Buck Chuck" and other budget wines. :)
ReplyDeleteMe too, Rick! I was really impressed with "Two Buck Chuck," as you could tell. Gonna crack it open this weekend, I think.
ReplyDeleteA nice, solid little chardonnay is from Australia, called Alice White. It is, for a chardonnay, light and crisp. I was introduced to it by an exJW at an Apostafest at my house 4 years ago. It retails for around $7 or $8 a bottle. I let my wife try it and although she is not partial to chardonnays she seemed to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteIt also makes a nice little present if you know someone named Alice.
Or White! :D
ReplyDelete