Schug Chardonnay, Merlot with dinner

We enjoyed a really nice dinner tonight featuring a couple of ingredients from our garden which is now in full bloom. The salad was garden-fresh arugula tossed with a lemon vinaigrette and Parmesan cheese. For the entree, we had medallions of pork tenderloin smoke-grilled over charcoal spiked with apple wood and pecan shells. The pork was served on a bed of risotto with wilted spinach; also from the garden.

Enjoyed before dinner (with a bit going into the risotto) was the 2007 Schug Chardonnay, Carneros - Light golden in color, the nose is initially dominated by diacetyl/buttery aromas. But as it warms, the buttery aromas give way to lush tropical pineapple and lemon aromas. Quite thick and sweet on the palate, the acidity doesn't kick in until the (slightly sulfuric) finish. Overall, I found this to be a bit monolithic and sadly, the buttery characteristics tend to overshadow the tropical Carneros fruit. About $25

With dinner, we had the 2006 Schug Merlot, Sonoma Valley. This wine has a pretty, medium ruby color and features a complex nose of pencilly French oak, wintergreen, tart cherry fruit, a bit of licorice, and a hint of burnt rubber. Medium-bodied with nice tannins, the palate is slightly green with sweet/tart cherry fruit and the somewhat hollow mid-palate I've come to expect from most Merlots. Long, toasty finish. Quite nice with dinner. About $25

Those of you asking for a farm update will be interested to note we've now more than doubled the size of the chicken flock. Our initial investment in 12 (actually 13) chicks eventually dwindled to 9 through natural death, killing a few roosters for food and predation. But the rooster and his harem of 8 hens have now spawned 15 chicks that we are in the process of integrating into the flock. With the size of the current chicken coop being inadequate for 24 chickens, we're exploring our options for expanding the coop. We'll probably end up turning the dog kennel (adjacent to the coop) into another coop and build the dogs another house.