Chardonnay

Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is smoky with lemon notes.  Medium to full bodied.  Slightly oily texture.  On the palate, lemons and lemon candy with a bit of minerality.  A bit lower in acidity than expected but enough.  Nice finish.  This is drinking well now and should continue for another ten to twelve years.  It drinks well on its own but is better served with food.  This would be nice with grilled Salmon.  

Great showing for this wine!  At age 21, it is showing just a bit of age.  No signs of any real oxidation (too old to be premox).  Golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is nice with smoke, grapefruit, slight lemon and a bit of minerality.  A lovely, oily texture.  Medium bodied.  Light tannins which were surprising.  On the palate, this has a lemon hard candied quality to it with plenty of acidity to counter it.  Long finish.  Based solely on this bottle, this could  have gone another ten to fifteen years.  Good on its own, but better with food, this went very well with Baba Ghanoush

This is a high altitude, single vineyard Chardonnay.  Gold in color, clear and bright.  The nose has apples, apple cider and slight peach.  Slightly oily texture.  On the palate, red apples predominate.  Nice finish.  Screw capped.  This tastes older than it is and a bit oxidized, but is still very pleasant.  It will work better with food.  A nice wine with Sushi.  Drink over the next few years.

Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose has gun powder and yellow grapefruit.  Medium bodied.  On the palate, grapefruits with underlying char/smoke.  Good acidity.  Slight residual sugar on the finish.  A nice wine, but it sees no oak which makes it suspect that the grapes were close to the wildfires.  Is the "smoke" just from sulfur?   Drink over the next few years.  Better on its own or with some cheeses.  

Made in a more classic California Chardonnay style, this Migration offers traditional lemon-lime, apricot, white peach, resin and guava notes along with honeysuckle, pear and a pleasant mouth feel. There is a good balance of oak and non-oak, excellent acidity and a subversive viscosity. Aged 10 months in just 34% new French oak allows the fruit and acidity to shine through. Made of all Chardonnay, the grapes came from five different vineyard sites within the AVA, which helps to provide a more well rounded Chardonnay. ORIGIN: Sonoma Coast. ALCOHOL: 14.2%.

Goldeneye has been making wine in the Anderson Valley for 30 years. This current release is comprised of 63% Pinot Noir and 37% Chardonnay. There is a lovely softness to the carbonation and viscosity of the wine itself. Pleasant notes of fresh, baked bread, golden delicious apple, apricot jam, blood orange and a slight honeydew melon fill the palate. Unlike many sparklers, this doesn’t lean towards sour apple, nor sweet, it straddles a middle ground of pleasant, soft notes, making this a delightful sipping wine with enough acidity for food.

Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is nice with grapefruits, slight lemon, and a hint of vanilla.  Medium bodied.  Nice acidity.  On the palate, this is lean but piercing (in a good way).  Grapefruit notes with just a bit of spice.  Long finish.  Tasty.  This drinks well on its own and would work well with lighter foods but also Salmon or Tuna steaks.  Drink over the next five years.  

A delightfully seductive Chardonnay that veers away from traditional, California Chardonnays, this offers deeper, richer notes of resin, honeysuckle, butter rum, light orange zest, apricot, and quince. It has a creaminess and lithe viscosity that rolls over the tongue. With only 33% new oak used on this you might think it would be more prevalent, but the fruit itself shines forth, the volcanic soils providing and earthiness and minerality. ORIGIN: Russian River Valley, Sonoma. ALCOHOL: 14.7%

Ordered off the list at Craig's in Hollywood, CA.  Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is nice with lemon, lime, slight floral note and  slight  smoke.  Full bodied.  Creamy texture.  On the palate, this is dry as a bone.  Delicious.  Lemons with slight lime.  Good acidity.  Long finish.  Very food friendly.  Went great with a Veggie Burger.  Drink over the next ten years.

Cuvaison is best known for their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir but in 2012 they launched a sparkling program. Comprised of mainly Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay, this brut was made in the traditional Champagne method. Using Pinot Dijon clone 115 planted in 1998, winemaker Steve Rogstad says these 25-year-old vines bring a “precocious beauty” to the wine, and I have to agree. This is a delicate wine with minimal sweetness, using the grace of the Pinot and the acidity and light salinity of the Chardonnay to make a very balanced, almost shy wine.