Community Tasting Notes 12

• Epic Tale Does not like this wine: 69 points

  September 23, 2016 - color: light gold-yellow (unusually dark for a chard); nose: candied oak w/honey notes; taste: medium-bodied mouth feel, rounded fruity vanilla taste, medium-length languid finish with honey-accented slightly sour tannins; overall: oakey, plump profile that conjures up images of a nursing home --not my style, but maybe it's yours; in any case, this wine is well past its prime as of Sept 2016 and is now in decline. Poor QPR at $15/bottle -- it should be priced as a remainder at $3.

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• CorkKing wrote:

  January 15, 2014 - One of the best Chardonnays I've ever drank!

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• Mike Kopanski wrote: 88 points

  December 20, 2013 - This is a Chardonnay for California Chardonnay lovers. The climate and terroir of Santa Barbara County seem to bring a little more briskness than other areas within the state. There is a nice concentration of upfront wet stone influenced pineapple meets apricot, citrus and oak. The fruit has enough intensity to allow barrel fermentation and still maintain a crisp freshness. The color is a glistening gold. Close to full bodied, partially a result of barrel fermentation. The extra couple years of bottle age has helped the integration and softness across the palate. Nice clean lingering ginger spiced yellow apple and oak finish.

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• DaveZack Likes this wine: 85 points

  July 28, 2013 - This wine has a very stony/minerally bouquet, along with some tropical and stone fruit elements such as pineapple, apricot, and peach. I also detected some earth and oak on the nose, which isn’t too surprising since Blair Fox (Fess’ head winemaker) likes to partially or fully ferment a lot of Fess’ white wines in oak barrels.
  
  After writing the above notes concerning this wine’s bouquet, I retrieved the newsletter that came with the shipment that included this wine and, sure enough, this wine was indeed 100% barrel fermented (30% of which were new barrels).
  
  The second thing I did was scream when I noticed the alcohol level on the bottle label. I’ve had a lot of red wines with less than 14.2% alcohol, so I was petrified that this wine would be a somewhat typical Fess white where the grapes were picked VERY ripe (resulting in elevated alcohol levels) and that the oak that was apparent on the nose would be overwhelming on the palate. Luckily, neither concern came to fruition.
  
  This is a good, decent Chardonnay, but sadly, I’ve had much better Chardonnays for a similar price (ranging from $8 to $40). Since the oak was not overwhelming and this wine carries its alcohol level very well, I was expecting a Chardonnay with more depth and complexity. Like a ripe, typical California Chardonnay, there’s plenty of tropical and stone fruit (which the bouquet foreshadowed), such as peach, apricot, mango, pineapple, pear, and apple. The barrel fermentation adds vanilla and richness; this is indeed a medium-to-full-bodied Chardonnay, with rich, creamy, oaky elements mid-palate. In addition to the oak and fruit characteristics, there’s also honeycomb and herbal elements as well. The finish is palate-clinging and lingering.
  
  We’ve belonged to Fess’ wine club since 2007; they were the first wine club Arthur and I joined. Pretty much all of their wines are, at worst, good, going all the way up to fantastic (some of their Pinot Noirs and red blends). I do have one issue with Fess’ white wines: they tend to use VERY ripe grapes (with high alcohol levels) and the (partial or full) barrel fermentation can make their whites seem a bit heavy, leaden, overly-rich, and almost overbearing. Although I appreciate all kinds of wines made in all kinds of styles, I do prefer whites that are generally lean and lower in alcohol. If the wine has incredible depth-of-flavor with a complex flavor profile (along with fabulous balance and a gorgeous structure), I’d have no problems with a Cali Chardonnay with 20% alcohol. However, I’ve yet come across a fantastic Cali Chard above 14% alcohol with complexity, depth-of-flavor, balance, structure, and elegance that warranted all that alcohol.

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• jbehrendt Likes this wine: 88 points

  March 3, 2013 - A good chardonnay. A bit oakey, but not overly so.

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Pro Reviews 2

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2010
• Type White
• Producer Fess Parker
• Varietal Chardonnay
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Central Coast
• Appellation Santa Barbara County
• UPC Code 718038555729

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 72 (22%)
• Consumed 261 (78%)

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