Drink this. Hogue is making Washington whites that split the difference between the two extreme styles and give you something to have with dinner or enjoy on their own, and cheap enough to do both.

Hogue’s chard has plenty of citrus and pear fruit, balanced acidity and enough oak to give it body, and a little vanilla, all without leaving splinters in your mouth.

And, if digging into some Washington wines turns you onto exploring some other wine regions in this big, beautiful, alcoholic world… well, then I’ve done my part.

Cheers,
TSW

WoW
…really excited about wine

* - malolactic fermentation is the process by which naturally occurring malic acid is converted into lactic acid. Lactic acid, as you might have guessed from the name, is what makes chardonnay buttery.

You’ve gotten the advice enough times by now that you must have taken it a few times, and been burned at least once. Anyone who has a single freakin’ opinion about wine these days is saying to ditch the butter-basted oak staves that pass for chardonnay these days and try something a little brighter, crisper, and less like tropical fruit-scented hand lotion.

So, you give some unoaked, non-malolactic* chard a try and the acidity is so high that it planes your teeth. There’s enough mineral to stonewash a pair of jeans fully ‘80s style. Figuring that no one needs to go back to that, you return to your buttery birch, wondering what you’re really supposed to drink.