I don't know about you guys but I do not like it when I have only one store to choose from that carries either one specific item or is the only store of its kind. What my issue specifically is here is that in Florida we basically have one grocery store to choose from and that store is Publix. I remember when I first moved from Las Vegas, the first grocery store I went into was Publix and man was I amazed at just how high priced they were. In Vegas my family and I were use to Smiths (Kroger), Albertsons & Vons and they each competed against one another for our business which meant we, the consumer, got the best price. I bring this up because I went to Publix the other day to get a bottle of wine as I was very simply too lazy to drive to the mom & pop wine shop I normally go to and the wine prices were super high. While Publix was always high priced, their wines were never this high priced. I think for now being lazy is out of the question and a short drive is in order as it is pretty sad when a huge grocery store chain is beaten out by a small family owned wine shop. I will just leave you guys with this and that is "Caveat emptor" which means, let the buyer beware.
Okay than, we are here today to learn about the 2023 Art Of The Cooper, Chardonnay - Special Selection. I recently did a review of the 2018 Art Of The Cooper, Sauvignon Blanc and found it to be an amazing wine so I figured when I saw this label again, I would jump on the chance to review it. I paid $9.99 for the wine and the bottle is cork sealed. The wine itself comes in at 14.5% alcohol which I find to be slightly high and its grapes come from the Napa Valley. For what it's worth, this is a "special selection" Chardonnay and in a few I will see just how special it is :)
Now label wise, I absolutely just love it. Click on the picture of the wine guys and take a look for yourselves, I ask you, is it not amazing? I just love the charcoal color of the label with the gold lettering and symbol. I think the white being chosen for the vintage color really helps in setting the label off as it provides just a bit of needed contrast here. While the term "special selection" probably doesn't really mean anything, I love how the winery put a small label located in the corner to advertising it.
On the nose now, I get what appears to be a baked, green pear type sweetness which appears at least as if it is going to dominate the palate. There is however, a liveliness to the nose but that sweetness perception has me concerned. This wines bouquet is limited to that pear note.
So, here we go now, how does the wine come across on the palate? The first think I picked up here is a spice to the wine. For a second I actually had to sit back and think about what I was actually tasting as I am not use to a Chardonnay having this level of spice. After taking a second or two to analyze what I was tasting, I realized that I like it. The spice while forward is very nicely presented and the wine is also so very well balanced, whomever the winemaker is, knows his or her stuff. Acidity is on the high side here which is a perfect match for not only the level of spice but the wine in general as a whole. Fruit? You want fruit? Well, let's talk because I am getting a bit of ripe, baked green pear that is surprisingly on the more subtle side when compared to the nose and while I understand the word "subtle" may seem like a bad thing, in this particular case, it is not a bad thing by any means. Having smelled the wine, I thought the pear would be a good bit more pronounced but thankfully this was not happening. 
This pear is not sappy or sickeningly sweet as many inexpensive Chardonnays love to put on display. Far too many times I have tasted baked green pear in a Chardonnay and found it to ruin a wine, this however is not that wine. A tinge of green apple is here as well and it comes in on the finish of the wine...its good. Oak. Yes, there is some oak here but again, it is well integrated and is not presented in a bad way at all. Speaking of oak, what would you expect from a winery whose name is Art of The Cooper as a Cooper is a after all a barrel maker. Here is where I bergin to have an issues with this wine as Vanilla is here as well and it does seem to also add a bit of sweetness to the wine. This is a sweetness that I could have done without and unfortunately it only increases as the wine develops. At first I was thinking that because the wine was warming a bit its sweetness was increasing but even when I put the bottle back in the ice bucket, the wine continued to develop along this path. It seemed that the wine was developing continuously and in a negative way.as that development continued to bring along increasing Vanilla sweetness with it. The wine does fight hard to maintain itself and it is fairly successful but in the end that vanilla sweetness really does it in. As a last note, there is some fresh tasting yellow peach here as well. This peach is a nice addition to the wine and it is incorporated very well into the wine as well and I enjoyed it. There was a crispness to the wine that while on the lighter side, was good. Sadly in the end I have to say that the wine was originally headed for a rating of 95 points but as the wine developed (changed) it kind of went sideways, it changed and became a wine that I cannot recommend.. So, there you have it guys, this review is done and I will see you in the next paragraph to give you my final thoughts and rating.
Here at the conclusion of this review, the one thing I noticed is that the wine seems to warm...change rather quickly and that isn't good but there is more. I also noticed that that the wine will sweeten a good bit if allowed to cool and as the wine opens up, not even chilling it holds this sweetening back. At first I really loved the wine, it had high acidity and a peppery note to it. to. The wine was a bit on the crisp side but that kind of fell off as well as the sweetness increased. In the end, that darn sweetness really did a number on the wine in my opinion and because of that, on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale, I am giving this wine 91 points. While the wine was originally headed towards my cellar, it took a dramatic turn and avoided it.
The Desert Wine Guy
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