$20 GETS YOU GOLD, LITERALLY!

Last night, we had dinner at Mustard's with Seth, one of the hubby's partners who was visiting from New York. We naturally brought over wines from the cellar, and had anticipated bringing over a bottle of the 2002 Batard-Montrachet Boillot to start. A few hours earlier, however, we were in the local photo/frame store developing some photos of our beloved German Shepherds Achilles and Gabriela; there, we bumped into Jason Woodbridge, proprietor of impressive One Hundred Acres vineyard.

Jason tells us of one of his new projects, GOLD, which was just released this year. This is a chardonnay blended with other varietals in Australia; Jason wouldn't identify the mix as the blend is "proprietary" information but it was easy enough later to taste the viognier in the glass. Anyway, Jason was also developing some photos and he showed us the very elegantly designed bottle, and added that it was available at the St. Helena Wine Center which is a few feet away from the photo frame store. So, Tom and I went over and picked up a couple of bottles to taste.

Here's the thing -- it's $20; Jason said he's doing this primarily for fun and not to make money and it shows since that packaging -- embossed white paper labels -- is worth more than $20 to admire. And why is it called "GOLD"? Check this out -- there are genuine 24-karat gold flakes shimmering through the wine. Well! We quickly replaced the dinner white, even if it's Batard-Montrachet, for one of the GOLD bottles -- I wanted to know what it was like to sip, literally, gold.

As it turns out, I couldn't detect a taste associated with those gold flakes though Tom said he felt their grit against his teeth...but the wine itself was a very enjoyable experience which didn't make us begrudge the curiosity that made us defer the Batard-Montrachet.

Tasting notes: A yummy combination of melon and citrus. Very nice acid and a good balance between fruit and acidity. Pleasurable, with a slightly lingering finish that makes it a great summer white. Clearly meant to be enjoyed, not stored.

It's a great story for the price: in addition to everything else, it adds adds bling bling to your poop. (Heee!) Anyway, this is GOLD's first year and Jason says there were 2,000 cases brought into the U.S., with 8,000 cases left in Australia. Over time, though, they hope to increase production of this "table wine" to the 75-80,000 case range. But mayhaps you heard about it here first...?