The French may have many faults as a wine-producing nation, be it genuflecting in Robert Parker's direction or refusing to acknowledge the 21st century. But they still make the world's best chardonnay -- even grocery store chardonnay.
The Cave de Lugny ($11, purchased) is just such a wine. It's almost unoaked, with some green apple and citrus at the front. If the mineral finish is a bit thin, it's not unpleasant like so many California grocery store chardonnays, which reek of fake oak and other winemaker manipulation. I stumbled across this while looking for something to have on hand in case Icepocalypse: The Sequel kept me from wine shopping, and snapped it up. Cave de Lugny has a fine reputation as a grocery-store Burgundy producer (I especially like the Les Charmes, though it's not $11 any more), and one could do a lot worse than this wine. Which, sadly, I have.
Drink this chilled on its own, with leftovers if you're cleaning out the refrigerator after the power goes out, or for Chinese takeout. Assuming you can get to the restaurant for takeout in between the winter storms.
Just a heads-up. Tried linking back to this post using the Trackback link, which is still not working. (http://www.examiner.com/budget-wine-in-washington-dc/a-white-burgundy-value-at-your-local-grocery-store) Don't know if that's because this is an old post that predates when you most recently fixed the Trackback function or whether Typepad has developed another glitch. Just thought you should know, 'cause your stuff is classic and even the old posts are worth quoting now and then.
Posted by: Rob Garretson | July 10, 2011 at 02:02 PM
And, I don't know if it's a glitch in Typepad or Examiner.com, but the link I tried to include above to the column that I quote you in doesn't seem to work. But if you copy and past the entire URL into your browser address bar, you'll see my column on Cave de Lugny. Or you can just go to http://www.WineForTheRestOfUs.com. ...
Posted by: Rob Garretson | July 10, 2011 at 02:12 PM