2002 Mad Fish Western Australian Chardonnay

[Georgie]

I bought this for two reasons. It's said it was "unwooded" and I liked the name of it! This is a nice wine. Very fruity;
I taste apples or pears maybe. Alcohol 13%. Price $12.49

[Innkeeper]

Sounds like my kind of wine.

[Georgie]

Yay! Innkeeper's back! Missed you this week! We want to hear all about it!

[Thomas]

So many people used to Chardonnay that is oaked and malocatic-ed to death are surprised to learn that a clean Chardonnay has the taste of apple, pear and even pineapple, which are the wonderful qualities ruined by a heavy handed winemaker.

[Georgie]

Hey, good for me. I'm actually starting to taste things in wine! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[Innkeeper]

Enjoyed a delightful week starting on Father’s Day and getting back last night. We went to Grand Manan Island (actually an archipelago with two inhabited islands, Grand Manan and the much smaller Whitehead Island. It lies in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, and as you may guess has 22 foot tides. It is nine miles off the coast of Maine, and about 60 from here as the crow flies. To get there, though, you have to drive three and half hours to a place called Blacks Harbor, NB (just east of St George) in-between St Stephen and St John. Then you take a one and half hour ferry ride. The main island, Grand Manan, is composed of two sections just about half and half. The east side of the island is strata, and the left side is volcanic. Therefore the east side is flat like most of the elongated islands along the American northeast coast, and the west side ends in 300 to 600’ foot shear cliffs.

There is nothing to do there except kayaking, whale watching, and hiking. There no night life except for a dive called Harry’s Bar. In the winter, Harry’s is only licensed establishment left open, and it barely survives. If it were not for the marginal wine situation there, I would retire for the fourth time there.

We went there first four years ago, camping with friends in a 31’ motor home. The camping is terrific there, but it is hard to get around in a large RV. For the past three years we have celebrated our anniversary up there in a lovely inn called the Compass Rose. “Our Room” overlooks a busy, working harbor, with views of beaches and off shore islands. We will be going back again in August for our 40th.

This time we took one of our daughters, her husband, and three kids. We stayed in a cottage at a place called Whale Cove. It overlooks a drop dead gorgeous body of water with only one house visible to the far right and nothing in the water to the left except fishing weirs and lobster buoys (the later come up this Sunday, the last day of their lobster season, and wooded cliffs on the far shore. I’ll send some pictures to Jackie when we get them back. The cabin was used by Willa Cather for several years back in twenties, before she built her own nearby in the same area. It cost $700 C for the week or $511 U.S. There was a whopping $105 C tax, but we can get most of that back. We were able to bring seven bottles of wine with us, and enjoyed them with meals or just sitting on the porch sipping. There was a gas grill where we fixed all our meals except for one night when we got take out lobster. On the one rainy day we had, we had reservations on a sailboat that went about halfway around the island and back. The weather broke just enough to make the trip enjoyable and photogenic.

The island package store has improved markedly since I last visited it about three years ago (we usually bring our own hooch). Now they have a nice selection of mostly Canadian, US, Australian, and French wines. We picked up an Ontarian Cabernet Franc (missed the details on it before the maid removed the returnable bottle). It went fine with a butterflied leg of lamb that we grilled, but did not hold a candle to a Chinon we brought we us with steaks on our last night. They were both about the same price.




[This message has been edited by Innkeeper (edited 06-24-2003).]

[Georgie]

Oh, I'm just swooning reading that, IK! Especially since I am sitting here in a room full of way-too-wound-up children on their second to last day of school. I think I'll print out your post and put it in my "Someday When I Retire" notebook! So glad that you had good weather and a beautiful time!

[Tyrrell]

Hey!! IK used "camping" and "31 foot motor home" in the same statement. I don't believe that these two ideas should be confused with one another.

[Innkeeper]

Tend to agree. In my younger days it was strickly a tenting affair. They do have a large provincial park up there where they can park RVs in one area, and have a secluded tenting area in another. There is also a private area called "Hole In The Wall Park" which is strictly tents, and all sites out of sight from each other.

[tandkvd]

Yeah, my idea of roughing it, is a Holiday Inn with a black and white TV.

The cottage sounds like the way to go. And a good price as well.

Welcome back IK.

[Georgie]

I felt like messing around in the kitchen tonight so I made us the Pasta Carbonara from foodie's cookbook and enjoyed the rest of the Mad Fish with it. Loved the dish, but foodie...serves two? More like 12! It was fun to cook; I felt just like an Italian nonna! Put Andrea Bocelli on the stereo and presto! Monday night was elevated to something romantic and special!

[Thomas]

Yeah, my wife says the two I must have had in mind at the time were me and me...

You know Georgie, every time I cook I change the recipe a little...can't help it. So, I'll have to do a second edition.

The Chardonnay should have done well with the dish--all that fat with the wine's crispness--mmm.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 06-23-2003).]

[Georgie]

What would you think of some chopped fresh tomatoes thrown in there?

[Thomas]

Only if they are fresh from the garden...

[Innkeeper]

Found a Mad Fish inbetween Georgie's and Drew's prices ($13.99) at Miranda's Vineyard in Portland recently. Popped it for daughter and beau with haddock a la creme last night. Every bit as nice as Georgie here and Drew elsewhere have posted. Highly recommended.

[quijote]

I opened a bottle of the Mad Fish tonight--beautiful! What a lovely wine, full of apples and grapefruit with a shot of pineapple and mineral. It went well with assorted seafood appetizers, but it is delicious all by itself. Two of my three guests weren't wine drinkers, and there was quite a bit of Mad Fish left over, so it's a perfect wine to sip on now that the friends have left. A beautiful spin on an unoaked, Old World treat.


[This message has been edited by quijote (edited 01-18-2004).]

[Innkeeper]

Great; now look for the Coopers Creek from Kiwiland.

[winedope1]

had a bottle of this myself Monday. It's the first chardonnay that I can say I thorughly enjoyed. The predominant flavors were, again, apple and a little mineral. Really good! WD