International Chardonnay Day

Last week Thursday, May 25th was International Chardonnay Day. Apparently, it occurs on the Thursday before Memorial Day. My husband found this out and learned that there are International Wine Days for all kinds of wines at The Traveling Corkscrew.
We planned to celebrate the day and invited our friends over for grilled chicken with a medley of roasted mushrooms, chickpeas and tomatoes. They were unavailable that evening, but we celebrated the following evening. We anted up the 2012 Clos Pepe and they brought over a 2009 Kistler Hudson Vineyard and a wine that they scored on their trip to New Zealand, a 2015 Marsden.
We started the evening with the Clos Pepe and the Marsden along with two cheeses, a Brillat-Savarin, a soft triple cream Brie made from cow's milk and a La Tur, a soft-ripened cheese made from a blend of sheep's, cow's and goat's milk. Both cheeses went very nicely with the Chardonnays.

My friend said that she purchased the Marsden while in New Zealand because it reminded her of a Kistler style Chardonnay. I liked the fresh zesty taste of lemon with a well integrated note of a little bit of oak on the wine. I would say that in terms of oak on the palate, Kistler > Marsden > Clos Pepe. We had the 2009 Kistler Hudson Vineyard with the grilled chicken. Our friend generously shared that bottle of wine which they received as a wedding gift. It was a perfect compliment to the grilled chickedn and roasted veggies. All of the wines were delicious in their own way and all were very well made.