Chardonnay from the North Coast
You can’t find a better time of the year to bring out the Chardonnays. As the days get longer and the nights warmer, Chardonnay can be both refreshing to sip on as well as enjoyed with an array of summer meals. California Chardonnays are world renowned for their distinct style but are often criticized by wine critics as having way too much overly extracted oak flavors, in other words, an ‘oak bomb.’ Despite this denigration, Chardonnay is still the most widely planted white wine grape in California and thus is the most widely purchased varietal wine in the US wine market today. (www.WineInstitute.org, 2007).
Chardonnay, an indigenous grape to Burgundy in France, can be broadly categorized into two different wine styles – Old world (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, etc.) and New World (California, Australia, Chile, Argentina, etc.). The old world style tends to showcase more subtle aromas with minerally and citrus fruit flavors such as lemon, grapefruit, butter, nuts, with higher acid and a touch of oak. New world wine styles have more prominent aromas and flavors of tropical fruit, apple, butterscotch, vanilla with low acid and a lot of oak. However, don’t just assume that if you are tasting characteristics from an Old World style wine that it is just that, and vice versa. Recently, Old World wine countries are producing more and more wines in the New World style to appeal to a broader range of wine consumers. Interestingly, some New World wine producers, such as California, are also changing their wine styles and are using Old World techniques to create their elegant Chardonnay wines.
So it can be a bit tricky, but no one is expecting you to be a wine expert right? All that is expected of you is to pick out a great tasting wine for your friends and family, and with the help of my wine reviews, I hope that will be the easy part.
The following wines were chosen because they are all characteristic of the distinctive California Chardonnay style. Although these top choices all have been aged in oak barrels, they are very well balanced and exhibit beautifully concentrated fruit flavors. And if you are trying to build up your wine cellar, the structure of the following wines hints that they will age for the next 2-5 years.
2005 Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Chardonnay, $17.00
This wine is very well balanced and smells of citrus and concord grapes with vanilla, apple, and stone fruit flavors. This full bodied wine, influenced by oak aging, has a beautiful, lingering finish.
www.sterlingvineyards.com
2006 Frei Brothers Russian River Valley Chardonnay, $17.99
A party in your glass! This wine shows aromas of tropical fruit and apricot and honey, butter, vanilla, green apple, citrus fruit, and pear flavors. The acidity and oak lend to this medium to full bodied wine with incredible balance. The flavors stick around in your mouth long after the last drop has been swallowed.
www.freibrothers.com
2004 Simi Russian River Valley Chardonnay, $24.99
Butterscotch, honey and vanilla aromas fill your glass with peach, vanilla, and apricot flavors of medium intensity. The oak adds to the complexity of this well-balanced wine and finishes strong.
www.simiwinery.com
2006 La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, $15.99
Yummy, intense aromas of buttery popcorn with stone fruit fill your nose and you will discover pear, apple, stone fruit, and vanilla flavors in your mouth. This wine has good body and a pleasantly long finish. A great California Chardonnay all around.
www.lacrema.com
*Please Drink Responsibly
Comments
2 Responses to “Chardonnay from the North Coast”
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I personally like the Heavy toast!
Thanks for including the hints on aging. That is GOLD! I’m currently trying to build my cellar, but having trouble with how long I can rack them.
Please keep up the Blog! Love it. Maybe you can Blog sometime on racking California Wines. I was under the impression California Wine Makers are gearing wine to: “Drink right now.”
Hi Gary,
Thank you for your comment. You are definitely correct that California winemakers have been making “drink now” wines, but as the US wine market is becoming saturated with imported wines made in a similar style, smaller California wineries are producing more wines that are ready to drink now but will benefit from bottle aging as well.
My goal is to provide aging information on all my wine reviews so my readers know how long the reviewed wines will last in their cellars.
Thanks again for the comment/suggestion!