This wine was closed down for the first half hour it was opened. Maybe too cold? But after some time in the glass and it warmed a bit it began to open up. Nose was subtle white flowers and lemon. On the palate, it was medium weight, a touch of oil-i-ness that I usually associate with white rhone wines, and it had some of that older honey character. Good acidity. Nice wine but that is all. Paired well with penne with swordfish, eggplant and cherry/pear tomatoes.
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Very nice. Pleasant to sip. Light golden color. Nose of flowers and citrus. Medium/full bodied with honeyed lemon and very good minerality. Good level of acidity. Never got tiring. Varner is really turning out some great Chards...Not 99 point rock your world wines, but enjoyable, balanced wines, consistently outstanding and at price levels that make them one of the best QPRs around for this quality level.
A really excellent bottle of CA chardonnay. Leans towards a more concentrated Kistler-esque style, but with more vibrancy and lift. Priced right and a lot of fun to drink.
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Quite delicious. A medium straw color. Very harmonious but extroverted nose with tropical fruits, tangerine and lemon. Medium body but intesnse flavors... a bit of good popcorny wood, but plenty of mineral-stone-old world action to balance it off. Kept getting better (at its best at around 53ish degrees, and 4 hours), and held our attention all evening. Looking forward to my two other bottles in the next two years.
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Popped & poured. Medium to light golden yellow in color. The nose is a little subdued at this point with faint citrus notes, caramel and a dash of oak. Medium bodied wine with good minerality and flavors of stone fruits, lemon peel & a nice underlying acidity that leads to a zippy finish. This wine is fresh, clean & pure. It shows wonderful balance and is delicious now but with a little patience & time will pick up weight and nuances. 50+5+13+16+7=91+
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Pear, Lime, Lemon; some apple. No overt oak. Full in the mouth; pretty. Holding together pretty well (a bit of alcohol on the finish). I haven't gotten into my 2006s (they just arrived, and I want to let them settle), but the 2005s are still holding out. Doesn't seem like it has "long bones." I'd plan on finishing the rest by the end of the summer (except for one I'll bury for a few years as an experiment). Nice wine.
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This is showing better than when I tried it in 6/07 - it no longer has a bitter finish; while rich and buttery, this has enough acid, minerality, and texture to make it more interesting than most CA chardonnay.
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This showed well last night. Still pretty steely and with gunflint, but the fruit was round and just forward enough without being obtrusive. Great freshness and some nice brioche notes. I think this is ready to drink but may hold for a few years, but I'm not sure how those would change the wine and if they'd improve it.
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2005 Chardonnay's; 1/1/2007-12/31/2008: A nice bottle of wine, if a bit hollow in the mouth. The nose is okay, the length is better than okay, and the mouth feels nice - it's a bit heavy in its "presence" and bitterness, but the underlying fruit is nice and varied (both white and orange) and the sense of soil and rock is very prevalent.
I think that this wine just needs some time to show its stuff. Try next in 2009?
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Stones and lemons in a fresh if tight package, with hints of orange, ginger, pears, grass, grapefruit, butter and chalk. Surely not a flabby, oaky, buttery or otherwise stereotypical CA Chard, that description sure does seem like a Europhile's self fulfilling prophecy. Don't like ML fermentation? Buy Stony Hill. You can find a touch of butter here, but all the other flavors predominate and make that component a complement, not a detriment IMO. Going great on day 2. 77 points is bitter, not the wine... :)
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Terrific wine. Remined me of a recent Dujac. Loads of minerals, lemon, and perhaps pear. This wine showed well cold and at room temp. I didn't get brown sugar,heat, or butter. A nice wine.
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Structurally speaking this is OK. Decent definition and acidity that adds some freshness to the lemony fruit. But the flavors are marred by that lactic, buttery flavor that made the whole planet sick of California chardonnay. A day in the fridge makes it worse, not better, and more alcoholic and bitter to boot.
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Shows very tight on day one, little there. Recorked and reopened 24 hours later. Nice wine, not showing any overt oak. Mineral. light citrus and soft pears. My least favorite of the 05 Varners. Day one almost flavorless, day 2 nice.
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Agree with cookie7 that this drank better on day two. Lots of minerality on the nose, with notes of nuts and grapefruit. The palate is quite fat, with just enough fine acidity to prop it up and lend it poise. A terrific chardonay, my only nit is that it finishes a bit ponderous and bitter.
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8/24/2010 - JFish wrote:
This wine was closed down for the first half hour it was opened. Maybe too cold? But after some time in the glass and it warmed a bit it began to open up. Nose was subtle white flowers and lemon. On the palate, it was medium weight, a touch of oil-i-ness that I usually associate with white rhone wines, and it had some of that older honey character. Good acidity. Nice wine but that is all. Paired well with penne with swordfish, eggplant and cherry/pear tomatoes.
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3/13/2010 - cadamson wrote: 91 Points
Very nice. Pleasant to sip. Light golden color. Nose of flowers and citrus. Medium/full bodied with honeyed lemon and very good minerality. Good level of acidity. Never got tiring. Varner is really turning out some great Chards...Not 99 point rock your world wines, but enjoyable, balanced wines, consistently outstanding and at price levels that make them one of the best QPRs around for this quality level.
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12/24/2009 - wine4ever wrote: 90 Points
Very pleasant. Not oaky, stoney fruits and minerality, medium bodied. Went well with oysters, a very nice sipping wine.
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11/21/2009 - jerhardt wrote: 93 Points
A really excellent bottle of CA chardonnay. Leans towards a more concentrated Kistler-esque style, but with more vibrancy and lift. Priced right and a lot of fun to drink.
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1/30/2009 - AdamWallstein wrote: 92 Points
Quite delicious. A medium straw color. Very harmonious but extroverted nose with tropical fruits, tangerine and lemon. Medium body but intesnse flavors... a bit of good popcorny wood, but plenty of mineral-stone-old world action to balance it off. Kept getting better (at its best at around 53ish degrees, and 4 hours), and held our attention all evening. Looking forward to my two other bottles in the next two years.
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1/6/2009 - herberto wrote: 91 Points
Good, really. Nice balanced Chard - fruit with a good balance of acidity and a pleasant light touch of oak.
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12/12/2008 - jwebtx wrote:
Singing right now and in-line with my prior notes.
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11/16/2008 - jwwinec wrote: 91 Points
Drinking beautifully - no hard edges, excellent balance.
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10/8/2008 - ScottS wrote: 91 Points
Popped & poured. Medium to light golden yellow in color. The nose is a little subdued at this point with faint citrus notes, caramel and a dash of oak. Medium bodied wine with good minerality and flavors of stone fruits, lemon peel & a nice underlying acidity that leads to a zippy finish. This wine is fresh, clean & pure. It shows wonderful balance and is delicious now but with a little patience & time will pick up weight and nuances.
50+5+13+16+7=91+
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8/13/2008 - jbaron wrote: 92 Points
Nice, filling, decent nose, VERY nice mouth that's full and rich and spicy and fruity, good length. Seems to have come into its own here.
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7/30/2008 - silton wrote: 92 Points
Terrific wine, in line with other notes. The Santa Cruz Mountains has some mighty fine Chardonnay terroir in capable hands.
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5/9/2008 - jbaron wrote: 91 Points
Still a heavy bottle of wine, but no longer shows that hollowness in the mouth. Rich tastes of tropical fruit, a decent nose, and a nice length.
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4/20/2008 - DaveHauser wrote: 89 Points
Pear, Lime, Lemon; some apple. No overt oak. Full in the mouth; pretty. Holding together pretty well (a bit of alcohol on the finish). I haven't gotten into my 2006s (they just arrived, and I want to let them settle), but the 2005s are still holding out. Doesn't seem like it has "long bones." I'd plan on finishing the rest by the end of the summer (except for one I'll bury for a few years as an experiment). Nice wine.
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4/13/2008 - jerhardt wrote: 93 Points
Well balanced with crisp minerality and lemon oil. Well done and a good QPR.
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4/4/2008 - jwwinec wrote:
This is showing better than when I tried it in 6/07 - it no longer has a bitter finish; while rich and buttery, this has enough acid, minerality, and texture to make it more interesting than most CA chardonnay.
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1/18/2008 - steffenpelz wrote:
This showed well last night. Still pretty steely and with gunflint, but the fruit was round and just forward enough without being obtrusive. Great freshness and some nice brioche notes. I think this is ready to drink but may hold for a few years, but I'm not sure how those would change the wine and if they'd improve it.
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11/3/2007 - jbaron wrote: 89 Points
2005 Chardonnay's; 1/1/2007-12/31/2008: A nice bottle of wine, if a bit hollow in the mouth. The nose is okay, the length is better than okay, and the mouth feels nice - it's a bit heavy in its "presence" and bitterness, but the underlying fruit is nice and varied (both white and orange) and the sense of soil and rock is very prevalent.
I think that this wine just needs some time to show its stuff. Try next in 2009?
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11/1/2007 - silton wrote: 91 Points
Stones and lemons in a fresh if tight package, with hints of orange, ginger, pears, grass, grapefruit, butter and chalk. Surely not a flabby, oaky, buttery or otherwise stereotypical CA Chard, that description sure does seem like a Europhile's self fulfilling prophecy. Don't like ML fermentation? Buy Stony Hill. You can find a touch of butter here, but all the other flavors predominate and make that component a complement, not a detriment IMO. Going great on day 2. 77 points is bitter, not the wine... :)
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10/31/2007 - jwebtx wrote: 91 Points
Terrific wine. Remined me of a recent Dujac. Loads of minerals, lemon, and perhaps pear. This wine showed well cold and at room temp. I didn't get brown sugar,heat, or butter. A nice wine.
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9/29/2007 - tanglenet wrote:
Opened not decanted. Some brown sugar and grass on the nose; slightly sweet on the palate. Good.
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9/21/2007 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 77 Points
Structurally speaking this is OK. Decent definition and acidity that adds some freshness to the lemony fruit. But the flavors are marred by that lactic, buttery flavor that made the whole planet sick of California chardonnay. A day in the fridge makes it worse, not better, and more alcoholic and bitter to boot.
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6/30/2007 - Hillbilly wrote: 90 Points
Shows very tight on day one, little there. Recorked and reopened 24 hours later. Nice wine, not showing any overt oak. Mineral. light citrus and soft pears. My least favorite of the 05 Varners. Day one almost flavorless, day 2 nice.
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6/20/2007 - jwwinec wrote: 91 Points
Agree with cookie7 that this drank better on day two. Lots of minerality on the nose, with notes of nuts and grapefruit. The palate is quite fat, with just enough fine acidity to prop it up and lend it poise. A terrific chardonay, my only nit is that it finishes a bit ponderous and bitter.
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6/1/2007 - cookie7 wrote: 89 Points
Drank better on day 2. Minerals, slate and well balanced acidity. Also notes of tropical fruit. Neither over-oaked or over-buttered.
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5/21/2007 - brianofthevine wrote: 91 Points
Citrus, lemon, nice finish.
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