Wineflock - Chardonnay Shootout
Dennis'
Tasted October 16, 2008 by winefool with 644 views
Introduction
Once again, the Flock got together for it's annual chardonnay shootout, pitting the very best examples (with a few exeptions in this case) of chardonnay from around the world. This is always a fun tasting as the wines, at least from the new world, always show very well and there are usually one or two new discoveries. The downside of course is that we don't really get the best examples from the old world since those wines are rare, expensive, and rarely show well against the big ripe californians anyway. Ken and I tried to do the old world justice with a couple of higher end grand Crus this year, but sadly mine was corked - would have been really interesting to see how the Damoiselles held up against the top calis. In an 'everybody bring a bottle' format, its just tough to pull out a $300-400+ great white burg when the best wines from the new world sell for less than $100 (at least release prices). My sense is that in the future, this probably should just become a shootout of new world wines and maybe we toss in one or two old world ringers.
At this tasting, I found myself out of synch with the group on several wines. I probably underrated the Ritchie as I've loved that wine in the past (though I don't think 03 was the strongest year for them), but I feel pretty good about my disagreements on the Fevre and the Kistler. Since the host wanted to include a couple extra odds and ends, there wasn't room to put in both the Jadot and the Dumol that I brought so we opened the Dumol at the end just for fun. It was too bad it wasn't in the main tasting as I really think this is the best Dumol Chardonnay ever produced and is up there with one of the best Cali chardonnays I've ever had. I think in this tasting, it would have beat out the Auberts for WOTN. Fun to taste at the end anyway...
All wines blind as usual.
Flight 1 (12 notes)
White
2001 Kongsgaard Chardonnay
USA, California, Napa Valley
Group #7, My #1 - Full yellow color. Medium full nose of yellow fruit and banana peel. Soft and full initially, some bitterness emerged. Big ripe oaky yellow fruit with oak sweetnes. Decent but a bit overripe?
White
2003 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Group #2, My #6 - Medium yellow color with slight green hint. Lovely rich nose of sweet vanilla yellow fruit and some oak, but not intrusive. Full tightyellow fruit with good stuffing on the palate. Still oak here, but enough fruit to carry it off.
White
2000 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Blanc
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Saint-Aubin 1er Cru
Group #11, My #11 - Mediuem full yellow color. Forward nose of odd intrusive oak and sickly sweet caramel. Big clumsy oak with only a little fruit in the background. Tastes manufactured. This was clearly not on a par for this tasting and the person who brought it should be embarassed.
White
1999 Kistler Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Group #3, My #10 - Full deep caramel/gold color. Big forward nose of oaky buttescotch - showing substantial age. Big oxidized yellow fruit. Some fruit there, but over the hill for me. Really not sure what the group found to like in this wine - I identified blind as an older Kister (would have guess more like early to mid 90s) and it seemed obviously past prime to me.
White
2003 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots
France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru
Group #10, My #1 - Light yellow color. Nice medium balanced nose of mineral, seashell, and yellow fruit. Nice rich yellow fruit with mineral note continue on the palate. Nice and balanced. Another example of a big disconnect with the group - this showed clear breed and pedigree to me, but I guess the group was looking for more wood??
White
1995 Hanzell Chardonnay
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Group #5, My #5 - Full yellow color. Medium yellow/white fruit and mineral nose. Nice big yellow fruit with mineral and oak hints with good acidity.
White
2001 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru
Group #8, My #8 - Bright light/medium yellow color. Bright sweet tart white fruit - interesting and nice. Nice rich yelllow fruit with integrated oak and citrus notes of lemon. 91-92 pts.
Flight 2 (1 note)
White
2005 DuMOL Chardonnay Chloe
USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
Medium yeloow color. Lovely lithe blanced clean bright yellow fruit on the nose. Mmmmn, nice round sweet blanced yellow fruit with good complexity and a note of sweetness. Spactacular California chardonnay - likely would have been WOTN in the previous lineup, IMHO.
Flight 3 (2 notes)
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