Barefoot Chardonnay

I’ve come across a number of casual wine drinkers who endorse Barefoot wines as a good cheap wine.  I tried one of the reds a couple years ago (I can’t remember which one) and wasn’t that impressed, so I haven’t gone back to Barefoot until now.

The Barefoot Chardonnay is actually not that bad.  And it seems I need to retract some of my lambasting of E&J Gallo in my last post.  Why?  Because Gallo owns Barefoot – they purchased the winery back in 2005.

One of the things that did strike me as peculiar with Barefoot is that there is no vintage on the bottle.  It’s just Barefoot Chardonnay.  Apparently the year doesn’t matter.  No vintage, but they do have a big sticker that says “98 Points!”  This is from a 2002 California State Fair Wine Competition and while I’m sure this wasn’t the vintage that was entered in the competition, Barefoot is going to milk all the marketing they can out of that award.

I did not give it a 98.  I gave it an 87.  It features peach and apple flavors and a decent finish.  Overall, it’s a nice enjoyable wine for $6.99.  Not outstanding, but a decent value wine.