Finding a Chardonnay for Wine Blogging Wednesday #36
So, the theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday #36 is “naked” Chardonnay. That is to say, the theme is for everyone to go out and find some unoaked Chardonnay from any part of the world, taste it, and report back to the wine blogging community. Awesome! I’m excited about this one.
Happily for me, my mother gave me a subscription to Wine Spectator for my birthday. And, as luck would have it, the July issue features a review of the 2004 and 2005 California Chardonnay releases! Nice. On page 76, they delve into more detail on the unoaked Chardonnay phenomenon, and a few wineries stand out as possibilities for WBW #36 as a result:
- Mer Soleil Vineyard - Their 2005 Santa Lucia Highlands Silver Unoaked Chardonnay has a long name and a score of 92 besides.
- Diatom - Greg Brewer makes a few different Chardonnays under a couple of different labels, but the 2005 Diatom Santa Rita Hills Huber Chardonnay rates the highest in the realm of Wine Spectator scores (91 points).
- Iron Hose - The 2005 UnOaked Chardonnay comes from the Sonoma region rather than the Santa Barbara region, which makes this wine tempting.
These three wines intrigue me, assuming I can find them in Seattle for less than $30-$40/bottle. “What, no Kongsgaard?” Yes, I know you’re wondering about that, but they use oak barrels for their Chardonnays. Sorry.
If you take a step north from California, you’ll find yourself in Oregon wine country, where they love their oak as much as the Californians do, gosh darn it. The Oregon Chardonnay Alliance (ORCA) lists seven Oregon wineries in its member list, and all of them mainly stick with Chardonnay bottlings that have been, at least in part, aged in oak. Some wineries, such as Domaine Drouhin, blend their Chardonnay after aging some of the juice in stainless steel and the rest in oak barrels. Others, such as Adelsheim, make some Chardonnay that sometimes ages only in stainless steel tanks and not in oak barrels. I say “sometimes” because their 2006 CH release does have some oak contact, but their 2005 release did not. Interesting.
I noticed a trend among some of the West Coast wineries: The more expensive Chardonnay releases spend some time resting in barrels, while the cheaper, “entry-level” Chardonnays never touch any oak. Chehalem is a good example of this phenomenon. They offer Ian’s Reserve Chardonnay at $32/bottle and their INOX™ Chardonnay at $19/bottle. The production level of the INOX is also much larger. I guess the unoaked wines will not age as well, perhaps? Interesting.
Another point that the Wine Spectator article makes about unoaked Chardonnay is how those wines typically avoid malolactic fermentation, whereby the malic acid becomes lactic acid. In terms of the difference on your palate, we’re talking about green apples vs. butter, roughly speaking. I wonder whether the malolactic fermentation process creates Chardonnay that has come, in the US, to be associated with “expensive” Chardonnay or “high-class” Chardonnay, whereas the unoaked stuff has sharper acidity and, therefore, tastes “cheaper” to people. This article points to the trend toward oaky Chardonnay, confirming some of what I was wondering about the link between expense and oak treatment of wine. Hmm…
Perhaps I need to find a good unoaked Chablis. I am still looking for a good reference for such wines, though. Same with Australian and New Zealand Chardonnays. Ahh, this is getting too difficult. Perhaps I’ll just drink some of Wayne Gretzky’s unoaked Chardonnay. How can someone so great go wrong?