Okay, now I get it– Chardonnay’s out to get me, like Montresor to Fortunato. What did I do? But say a couple disparaging notes, critical winks. This one tells me again to be quiet with its soft, rich palate, and I lay agape– Full and kinesthetic with its shape and stance; so convincing and again converting like no other Chard I’ve tasted before– okay so be more journalistic in your review, you say.. how can I when I feel like a clown, again proven wrong but with the Donum Chard more than before with those other bottles that made me doubletake– this one makes me turn around and revisit my entire Chardonnay assessment and bias and malice. So I’m here with this in my glass, with the pair and custard and poundcake-y chord about my critical code, and like I said I’m still, no words and plainly taken– Again with Plath’s words: “I AM I AM I AM.” This Chardonnay has identity that growls and hums and sedates the sipper with this tidally cuddling drum. This Chardonnay may not be out to get me as I said, now that I think about it, but play a certain set of chords with its pair and poundcake texture and taste sequence– the fervor behind this Burgundy interpretation is one I’ve not only been halted and humbled, but also renewed, with open perspective and a walk through the taste again, the third sip in the last two minutes, and I notice the acid a bit more, but only to uphold and show new designs in the fruit; a sort of Cubist movement to its musical nature and what it wants to say; this Chardonnay’s intention and overall rhetoric, envisioned reflective grounding demands observation, appreciation, and that’s just what precipitates.. so I’d go so far as to affirm there is no “finish” with these sips, as I keep tasting and thinking and listening to its Hutcherson-like or Miles-y tunings and palate ballads.. soft and curious and magnetic in all turns, angles, stops and go’s. And I sit here in my kitchen, eyebrows raised eyelids all but completely lowered and softly let out a “oh”….. I’m a student, and follower, and subscriber to Chardonnay because of Donum’s pedagogy in the bottled project and premeditation in the interpretive. And yes, I think, I’m the writer I’m the professor– but here I’m very much a student. And ever-grateful student. And I can’t stop with my professing and confessing of my attachment to this, the bottle that humbled and muted and re-shaped my perspective, and probably changed how I enjoy wine, PERIOD. Another sip, and the Chard again orders me to hear her: “I AM I AM I AM.” I’m in Burgundy, and California, and the Donum approach, and my new scope. Renewed, re-constituted, and re-WRITTEN.

MM96

(6/6/15)