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Thank you for visiting Wine Camp. I created Wine Camp to promote the discussion of terroir driven wines in a points free environment. I believe the current addiction to the 100 point scale pulls many consumers away from wines with grace, complexity and a true sense of place. Here you will find no rankings and all of the wines in my wine notes are recommended. The only exception you’ll find is if I think a particular brand is a consumer rip-off that needs exposing as in this post.

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« David Lett, Father of Oregon Pinot, Passes Away | Main | Worth Reading: Asimov on Too Much Sugar in Alsace »
Friday
10Oct

Warning: Chardonnay Review Below

DateFriday, October 10, 2008 at 03:06PM

chardonnay I know, I don't believe it either. Yet here I am writing positive notes about an American chardonnay. It's hard to think of a more boring category than American chardonnay, which tends to fall into two groups. One is cheap and sweet and the other is expensive and, well, sweet and oaky. In my opinion the only areas really producing interesting chardonnay year in and out are Chablis for top quality wines and Macon for value. There are wonderful wines produced from this variety in the Cote de Beaune and many New World wine regions, but they tend to be the exception to the rule.

I tasted one of those exceptions with a ridiculously rich home-made chicken pot pie last weekend. The 2004 Chardonnay Dijon Clones, Willamette Valley, Côte Sud Vineyard from Domaine Serene is an excellent chardonnay. I never tasted this wine in its youth, but it has matured into a beautiful chardonnay that integrates richness with a firm backbone that is perfectly overlaid with smoky vanillin from the oak. What pulls this wine together is the hard minerality and firm acidity that keep this this wine from falling into this variety's tendency towards flabby sweetness. Former Domaine Serene winemaker Tony Rynders definitely had the right touch with this chardonnay.

I am not intentionally, anymore anyway, part of the ABC (anything but chardonnay) crowd. However, as I think about it I realize I never even look at the chardonnay sections as I run my finger through a wine list. This has happened over the years as chardonnay began to bore me more-and-more and other white wines, particularly riesling, excited me more-and-more. Oddly enough, many rieslings I love and chardonnays I don't have similar residual sugar levels. However, what divides them are the very dissimilar pH levels. Sugar without acid just doesn't work unless it's for the wine-by-the-glass program at Fridays.  

 

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AuthorCraig Camp | Comment3 Comments |
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Reader Comments (3)

Why do people hate on Chardonnay? It's a perfectly viable grape enjoyed by many. Stop the hate, people!
October 11, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterDale Cruse
I don't hate chardonnay. I just find most of it boring and difficult to match with the foods I like to eat.
October 16, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterCraig Camp
<b>A top-secret news.
<b>Barack Obama</b> and <b>Osama bin Laden</b> came to an <b>agreement about the future of US</b>. It's the new page in US history. :(
There is no America now at whole!!!!!!!!!!!! Only terrorists and money, it's all Obama intrested in.</b>

<a href=http://best-top.us/news>Watch the video !!!</a>. :(
http://best-top.us/news

Watch quickly. The video will be deleted by hoster because of politics. !!!
December 21, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterdontbesilent

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