Auto Moto 2006 Chardonnay (1.5 stars out of 3)

Last night, I stopped by the wine store on the way home and picked up a 2006 Auto Moto Chardonnay. It's a California wine (Santa Rosa) and was promoted as the "wine of the month." My wife gave it a 2 out of the stars, whereas I gave it a 1 out of 3 stars. A 1 star basically means I wouldn't buy it again, a 2 star means it's a wine we'd buy again, and a 3 star means it's one of the best wines we've had recently. All of this is, though, value-adjusted - that is, a rating is a function of the price. So part of why this got such a low rating for me was that it was $10.99. As my wife said, she would've felt much better at $7, whereas I'd put it even lower. Take the following review with a grain of salt as I don't have a sophisticated palette for wine, nor do I have considerable wine knowledge. My main complaint was this weird bite it had as soon as it hit my palette. Not fruity - it almost had an iron or metal taste to it, or maybe even a mix of iron and charcoal. I've heard of people commenting that a wine has a charcoal taste as a kind of approving statement, so maybe this is fine, but it was a bit unnerving and I couldn't enjoy it. I also thought it was unusually weak when drank cold. That said, I wouldn't buy it again.