I have too much wine.  And that is not just the opinion of my wife (and it is her opinion, btw). I would tell you how much but it would either come across as boasting (a bad thing for a good mid-western protestant boy like me), or foolish (convinced that some ne’er-do-well will then try to gain access to my cellar to scoop up the remaining two bottles of the Gnarlier Head that are down there).  Let’s just say it’s a lot.

Last night I confirmed that I have both too much wine and a lack of organizational acuity.  A few weeks ago, I was all up in arms at one of the places where I get a lot of my wine.  I happened to be going over some invoices when I noticed that they had been double charging me for shipping.  As I mentioned in a previous entry here, I can be a rather, um frugal shopper and I really do not like paying for shipping.  OK, I actually hate paying for shipping.  So just imagine how I feel overpaying for shipping.  This made me look up all the transactions I could find on our credit card to determine how pervasive this had been.  Since this is not the focus of this piece, let’s just say it was enough cash to raise a bit of a stink over.  The point of this particular rant is that it was also clear that they had neglected to even send me one of the bottles (2005 Ken Brown Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay) that I had purchased back in January!  I knew this since I like to think that even though I have too much wine, I keep track of it all on an online cellar tracking service called interestingly enough ‘Cellar Tracker‘.  It is a fabulous service that really is great with helping to keep up with things.  I checked in the ‘Tracker’ and it showed me that I did not have any bottles of the Ken Brown S&B Chard in the cellar. I also knew that we did not drink it (thanks CT).  In my letter to the company, I also indicated that in addition to being overcharged for shipping, they neglected to even send the Ken Brown.  I was steaming….

That takes us to last night.  I got home before the wife and kids and it was really hot here in Philly: 95 degrees, 96% humidity (or vice versa, but at that point, who really cares?).  We were going to need something cold for dinner and it was certainly looking like a Rosé Kind of Night.  I decided to pull out a rosé from one of my absolute favorite producers, Hank Skewis–one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and a genius with pinot noir (the rosé is 100% pinot–yum).  I got down to the cellar and knew right where to go as I have rather ingenuously laid out the entire cellar and entered the exact location of all the wine into the Tracker.  Pulled out the bottle.  Ready to head up stairs.  Another bottle falls out of the rack.  First thought: ‘Please don’t break, please don’t break.’

It didn’t (although since no doubt you know where this is going by now, had it broken, it would have been completely perfect from a [bad] karma stand point).  I picked up the bottle of 2005 Ken Brown Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay and inspected it for signs of damage.  There were none.  I started to put it back into the rack when I realized my buffoonery.  Not wanting to let karma have another chance, I put the Skewis rosé back (plenty more hot days ahead) and took the Ken Brown upstairs.

2005 Ken Brown Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay: Tasted 5/29/2012. Retail ~$30.  I paid $22 from an online auction. the Cellar Tracker community suggests this be consumed by 2010.  Well, this wine is still doing very well.  Lots of tropical fruit (think lemons, apricots and even pineapple) up front with a nice balance of acidity, alcohol, and (just a hint of) oak.  Medium to long finish.  Paired very nicely with the fish tacos.  Very Good to Outstanding.  90 (+?) points.