Gallo Café Chardonnay

I have somewhat of an internal debate going on with this website.  Should I focus on small wineries that offer those hidden gems in the wine world, or should I review wines that are massed produced and anyone can find?  While I generally have an affinity for the independents, I also want this blog to be helpful to readers all over the states… not just to those who have access to the distributors & stores in my region.  So I’m trying to strike a balance…. review some wines that are available anywhere and some that may have more limited distribution.  But when I taste a wine like this one, I want to cast aside the mass producers altogether.

The culprit is Ernest & Julio Gallo Café Chardonnay.  I can’t even remember the last time I tried a Gallo wine before this (if I’ve ever had one).  Something about the brand makes me wary and this experience justified all my fears.  This wine is the sweetest Chardonnay on earth.  It tastes like apple juice sweetened by honey… a lot of honey… too much honey.  Did I mention that this wine is too sweet?  Ugh.  I forced down a glas and a half and I had to dump it.

To my surprise my wife was upset when I dumped this wine.  She called it “wasteful” and said that she kind of liked it.  What!?   So is this a gender-specific wine?  Maybe women actually enjoy this, but I know that I didn’t.  I gave it a 77.  I know you may think that rating is high, but to be fair there weren’t any bad flavors in this… it is just too damn sweet.  I could see some folks enjoying it, but I would venture to guess that the majority of them would be 21 year old women (because that’s the legal age, right?) who are “new to wine.”

If you like good, well balanced wine but are on a budget this is not the wine for you.