Macari Vineyards Early Wine Chardonnay 2012 | North Fork, Long Island, NY, USA
Who needs Beaujolais Nouveau when you can “get local” with a luscious white wine from Long Island?
The truth is, I enjoy the hoopla, celebration, and tradition around Beaujolais Nouveau. Not to mention, the grape-jelly-like wine pairs mighty well with nearly everything on the Thanksgiving table. Just make sure you drink it before Valentine’s Day, OK?
Now, what if you’re one of those people who is anti-French? Or a staunch locavore? Or what if you feel that the American tradition of Thanksgiving should be celebrated with an American wine? There’s more to America than Zinfandel, and though Chardonnay is technically a French varietal, Macari’s is 100% grown and bottled in ‘merica, the good ol’ U-S-of-A. Most importantly, Macari Early Wine Chardonnay is guaranteed to pair well with the traditional turkey as well as nearly every trimming on the table. And, if you’re one of those who does something other than turkey, this wine will also go very well with roast pork, spiral ham, duck, chicken, or game fowl.
The nose has an understated aroma of pear – like pear nectar that you might drink from a Goya bottle or can. In the mouth, though, it explodes with bright, juicy flavors that remind me of fruit salad: sweet pear, peach, pineapple, guava, green seedless grapes, and white cherry. It has mild acidity and canadian pharmacy and a healthy dose of residual sugar that pushes all the fruit forward and makes for a delectable foil to hot and spicy foods; think sausage stuffing. It finishes with a pleasant, clean taste of pure fresh apple juice. This is a truly enjoyable, lovely wine that will be hugely popular with people who normally don’t drink wine. The snobs will eschew it for its r.s. level but watch them as they take surreptitious sips in between their condescending comments.
If you can get a bottle for Thanksgiving, by all means do so. And if you can’t get it in time for Thursday’s feast, pick it up anyway and enjoy it later with Chinese take-out, spicy Thai, Indian cuisine, buffalo wings, or on its own as an aperitif.
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Alternatively, purchase it directly from the winery by visiting the Macari website
This wine was also reviewed by New York Cork Report and The V.I.P. Table.
Disclosure: I received this wine as a press sample
Nose is a bit unusual, as there is an element I can’t quite identify, except that it’s something I normally associate with well-made homemade wine. It’s kind of like overripe pear — though, not off-putting or anything, just not something I expect to smell in a Sauvignon Blanc. After sitting in the glass for a few minutes, a lovely pineapple scent dominates the aroma as that pear rounds out. 
When it comes to wines from the United States, North Fork, Long Island, New York, is not exactly mentioned in the same breath as, say, Napa Valley, but nonetheless this small region does produce drinkable and enjoyable wines. Its Northeast geography lends itself to less consistent and predictable summers, with a climate and soil type that is not necessarily ideal for “traditional” grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Merlot. Very generally speaking, Long Island summers are better suited for varietals such as Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Cabernet Franc, which tend to flourish in cooler climes.