WBW #35 Roundup and #36 Theme Announced

The roundup of wines from the 35th installment of Wine Blogging Wednesday has been posted by Michelle and Kevin at My Wine Education. If you enjoyed my post on the Toro from Quinta de la Quietud, you'll find more than 40 other write-ups of Spanish wines, most of them under $10/bottle, some good, some not so good. Submissions came from all over the globe so you should be able to find at least a few wines of interest that may be available in your area.

Quick on the heels of the roundup came Lenn Thompson's announcement of WBW #36. The due-date for this month's assigment, August 8, marks the three-year anniversary of WBW, so Lenn has decided to host the virtual tasting on his own blog, Lenn Devours. The theme is "Naked Chardonnay." It's a term I'm not a big fan of but a style that I have little problem embracing. Really, it's an about-face response to the overwhelming tendency of California and New World Chardonnays to be stylistically lavished with oodles of oakiness. Though "Naked Chardonnay" is a distinctly New World term, the Old World has a long tradition of producing Chardonnay based wines that see no oak, particulary in the Burgundian regions of Mâcon and Chablis. There's no price limit this time 'round, so have at it.