Chardonnay

One of my favorite Chardonnays (both the winery and this vineyard).  Light golden in color with some green hues, clear and bright.  The nose is smoky with minerality, slight vanilla and grapefruits.  Medium to full bodied.  Slightly oily texture.  Good acidity.  On the palate, minerality and slight grapefruit.  Lemon candy on the long finish.  12.9% abv.  This is still drinking youthfully.  It should drink well for another ten to fifteen more years.  Great on its own, this will work well with lighter foods but also seafood and even fried chicken.  

This 2014 Blanc de Blanc is a sparkling wine with a brisk acidity and a hint of chalky minerality. Hand harvested and whole cluster pressed, there’s a lovely creaminess to this wine with very mild carbonation, allowing more of the fruit to come through. It offers lemon-lime notes, guava, red delicious apple and grannie smith green apple, light unsweetened honeysuckle, Asian pear, a hint of baked brioche. The balance of the flavors makes this easy to pair with a diversity of foods. 178 cases. ORIGIN: Alexander Valley, Sonoma. ALCOHOL: 12.5%

A WOW wine to be sure.  Still very young.  The color is fascinating.  Almost a Day-Glo yellow/green in color.  Iridescent.  The nose has a lot of oak, toast and char but also some pineapple and a bit of citrus.  With air, minerality comes out and the oak integrates just a bit.  Full bodied.  On the palate, this is big, ripe and sexy.  Citrus, some butterscotch and plenty of baking spice and char.  Long finish.  This is fantastic now (especially if you are not oak averse), but give it another decade  in the cellar and it will be flirting with a 100 score.  Either way, it should have at least

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.