I am not a big fan of white wines, particularly two buck chuck white wines, but I felt compelled to give the Charles Shaw chardonnay another chance after learning that it won the top prize at a California State Fair tasting competition. As with movie reviews, I'm not one to blindly follow other people's opinions, or tastebuds, without trying something out for myself--which is why I decided to give this wine another try.

The Wine Goof's Rating System

Here is a quick break down of my fingers-around-the-glass rating system:

• Five Fingers: Serve it to your neighbor who used to run a winery.
• Four Fingers: Go ahead and serve to friends and family as a decent table wine.
• Three Fingers: This is completely drinkable, but nothing to really brag about. Use caution when drinking, a common side effect of this wine is an extreme headache.
• Two Fingers: A mixer wine: you can handle it if you add some juice, or some other masking beverage, to it. Really, only drink it if you need a cheap buzz.
• One Finger: Your grandma is hopped up on painkillers, has no sense of taste, and partially blind? This is the wine for her!
• Zero Fingers: Don't even touch the container it comes in. Use extreme caution, this substance is flammable, and may detioriate any material in comes into contact with.

This wine is fresh and fruity, but needs to be crisply cold when you drink it. If it warms up even a bit, it definitely becomes a two, maybe one and a half, finger wine. It hints with the taste of apples and is sweet.

My suggestion is to pop two or three frozen strawberries in the glass--not for flavor, but to help keep the wine chilled. Plus, you get to eat the wine soaked strawberries once the wine is gone.

At first, I thought it was a typical white wine, nothing special (remember, I'm not a white wine fan). However, the flavors of the wine change depending on what you eat. First, I tried a slice of sharp white cheddar cheese with the wine. This was pretty tasty and brought out the apple flavor. But, by far, I was impressed with how fruity-licious the wine became after a morsel of dark chocolate. Even if you don't particularly enjoy white wine, give this combination a try.

So, it might have been judged the best by more experienced wine drinkers, but this common wine sipper gives it:

Three Fingers

Bear in mind, this wasn't an easy decision to make. If it isn't ice cold, it definitely doesn't deserve three fingers. Also, the dark chocolate really boosted the score.