Folie à Deux Napa Valley Chardonnay 2006

A classic, full throttle Napa Valley Chardonnay, the 2006 Folie à Deux offers up a beautiful, sunshiny robe, an amplifying nose, and a cornucopia of flavors. Red apple and pear fruit, butter, coconut, toasted oak, vanilla, and spice all come together in the aromatic profile of this delicious, easy to drink Napa Valley Chardonnay. Although imbued with plenty of fruit as well as an ample patina of French oak, the Folie à Deux Chardonnay never goes over the top or wears on the palate. It retains balance and freshness along with a wealth of flavor that few other California Chardonnays can claim. For maximum enjoyment, we suggest only moderate chilling (40°-45° F) of this beautifully wrought Napa Valley Chardonnay and just a few minutes of aeration before consuming. Enjoy!

The 2006 Folie à Deux Chardonnay is a wine made with good old-fashioned drinking in mind. Yet classic Chardonnay is always at its best with food, and so it is with the 2006 Folie à Deux. Try this flavorful Chardonnay with Steamed Crabs, along with plenty of drawn butter. Crab Imperial, Lobster Bisque, and almost any rich seafood dish that relies upon butter or cream in its sauce will complement this wine and provide ample reason to pour a second or third glass. Prosciutto Wrapped Alaskan Halibut, served with a roasted red pepper relish, offers another, even more intense treat with the Folie à Deux Napa Valley Chardonnay. For landlubbers, we suggest poultry, pork, or ham as amiable companions. Chicken Cordon Bleu and Chicken Fricassee provide especially fine choices with this wine. In addition, a glass of the 2006 Folie à Deux Napa Valley Chardonnay and a selection of soft goat cheeses or uncrusted cow's milk cheeses such as Cheddar, Caerphilly, or Gruyère offer alternatives to fish or meat, or they can afford yet another mouthwatering way to finish a bottle of Folie à Deux's 2006 Napa Valley Chardonnay.

Folie à Deux is a boutique Napa Valley estate that is dedicated to producing excellent Napa Valley Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel. This historic property lies just north of St. Helena in the heart of Napa Valley. Folie à Deux's vineyards and century old farmhouse lie sandwiched between Spring Mountain and Howell Mountain, at the narrowest part of Napa Valley. The estate's location provides a unique microclimate and a special terroir, which permit cool air to roll slowly down Mount St. Helena and cool the estate vineyard during the long summer days of torrid heat. At Folie à Deux, unlike many other Napa locales, the cool air sifts its way through the vineyard the way sand passes through an hourglass. The result is great physiological ripeness in the vineyard, without a loss of aromatic or flavor profile. Since 2004 Folie à Deux has been owned by Bob Trinchero, the proprietor of several renowned California wineries. However, the tale of Folie à Deux is both intriguing and unique, as the winery's name suggests. Folie à Deux was founded as a bonded winery in 1981 by two psychiatric professionals. When the couple told their friends that they planned to fulfill a mutual dream by starting a winery, the friends jokingly suggested that the couple was exhibiting the classic symptoms of Folie à Deux, a psychiatric term that is defined as the sharing of fantasies by two close friends. The name stuck. To build on the theme, a local Napa Valley artist, Susan Ortega, created a drawing of twin dancers based on a Rorschach inkblot. Her inspiration for the label was the fantasy that she and her sister shared of one day becoming professional ballerinas. However, there is more to this amusing story, which leads one to wonder if our subconscious minds do not comprehend more than we think and indeed play a greater role in events than we imagine. During the 1930's Folie à Deux's farmhouse and surrounding property were owned by Spanish prizefighter Luis Santa Maria, who had retired with his family to St. Helena to tend sheep and make wine. The Santa Maria family lived in the farmhouse that now serves as the winery's offices and tasting room and they used the same old stone shed to store wine that Folie à Deux now utilizes for storing wine. Curiously, Bob Trinchero, the present owner, and Santa Maria's daughter sang together in the school choir in high school. One could presume that the young Trinchero's subconscious was somehow at work here. However, what is even more serendipitous is the connection between Trinchero and Scott Harvey, Folie à Deux's long time winemaker, who for years Bob used to kid by telling him he was "watching," and perhaps he was. Bob's home looks down on the Folie à Deux property, which he so wisely purchased in 2004. Apparently, he liked what he saw and tasted, and so did we. Whether life's coincidences and connections are the result of random chance, a great master plan, or the result of our subconscious fantasies is open to debate. However, what is not in question is the quality of the wine produced by Folie à Deux. Folie à Deux fashions distinctive wines at several price levels.