Wineflock - Chardonnay Shootout

Every year the Flock convenes to compare some of California's and France's better chardonnays. Usually the California wines clean up in this blind format (of course not many people are turning up with the great Grand Crus aged to perfection either...). This year we opened the theme to any chardonnay from anywhere and any vintage. This had the odd effect of greatly increasing the diversity of the wines compared to past years - even though NO ONE brought anything from outside California or France...

Overall the tasting was fun and the wines showed reasonably well with some highlight and low lights. Once again we proved that no matter how much you love Chablis, they just have a tough time in this format and company. Oh yeah, and we agreed once again that Aubert is making some of the best chardonnay in the world (even the Francophiles had to agree on the 05 Ritchie).

All wines blind as usual.

• 2005 Peay Vineyards Roussanne/Marsanne Estate 90 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Nice enough full new world Marsanne/Roussanne, big and spicy, but perhaps with a bit more heat than I'd like.

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• 2005 Peay Vineyards Viognier Estate 91 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  A lovely wine with plenty of fruit, spice, and character, but it did not scream Viognier to me. I think a step up in quality and balance from the marsanne/roussane. Clearly new world - you won't mistake this for Condrieu.

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• 2004 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard 95 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Group #2, My #1 - Cloudy electric yellow. Medium nose of candied banana peel with just a hint of the tropics. Opened up more as it warmed a bit from fridge temp. Mmmmn, electric yellow sweet tropical fruit on the palate. Unmistakably Aubert and delicious as always.

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• 2005 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard 95 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast

  Group #1, My #2 - Full yellow with a green tinge. This is the first vintage of Aubert that did not have that slight cloudiness, which I think actually improves the appearance a bit. Full round aroma of yellow fruit and great mineral. Big bright mineral with beautiful tropical yellow fruit. Great intensity, balance and focus here.

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• 2005 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Group #7, My #7 - Clear yellow color. Clean pale acidic green apple nose, almost reminiscint of a good sancerre. Big tight lemon yellow fruit with clean acidity. I think this wine probably merits a little higher score but suffered in the context of this tasting against all the bigger oaked examples. It was a really lovely chablis on its own. Also, this wine seemed to show a bit younger than the other 05 GCs from Fevre I've had recently.

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• 1998 Kistler Chardonnay Cuvée Cathleen 88 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  Group #10, My #8 - Full copper gold color - clearly showing signs of advanced age. Huge aroma of honeyed butterscotch. Huge rich tight butterscotch fruit. Showing clear older/oxidative notes, but still has good energy and underlying breed. Plenty of debate on this wine as it is clearly showing signs of accelerated aging. The owner bought it on release and stored it in his cellar since then so storage/treatment has not been an issue. So is this just an off bottle or is it an off wine??

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• 2001 Chasseur Chardonnay Lorenzo Vineyard 93 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley

  Group #4, My #4 - Golden color. full clean aroma of yellow fruit and lemon pledge. Very rich ripe yellow fruit with spice and oak, but nicely balanced. A clear honeyed note here.

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• 1996 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Group #8, My #3 - Yellow color. Medium nose of yellow friut and mineral with hints of lanolin and oak. Full yellow fruit with nice inner-core energy. Balanced acidity, long finish. I obviously liked this better than most, but I'll stand by that.

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• 2002 Verget Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons Vieilles Vignes des Minots 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Group #3, My #5 - Yellow color. Medium forweard nose of mellow slightly sweet yellow fruit. Nice rich round lanolin yellow fruit and mineral with oak notes. Good acidity and a long finish. Again, I ranked this higher in the context of the chablis tasting, but it showed well with the group here again.

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• 2000 Jean Boillot & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Mouchère 87 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Group #9, My #10 - Bright yellow color. Pale aroma of white and yellow fruit with a hint of oak. Medium slightly hollow bitter yellow fruit. Showed the same chardonnay character as many of the other wines, but lacks the stuffing to pull it off. After unveiling I was surprised as I've had much better examples of this wine in other years.

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• 1999 Kistler Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley

  Group #6, My #6 - Full golden color. Forward nose of angular yellow fruit with some spice. Opened up with a sweet note in the glass. Big sweet spicy mouthful of yellow fruit and oak. A bit over the top for me, but nice.

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• 1998 Lynmar Estate Chardonnay Reserve Quail Hill Vineyard 87 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley

  Group #5, My #9 - Golden color. Huge nose of briar spicy acid and heat. Leesey. Big honeyed spicy oaky glyecerin yellow fruit on the palate with more heat. Interesting wine, but not really my cup of tea.

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• 1975 Weingut G.F. Von Nell Wiltinger Klosterberg Riesling Auslese 88 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Interesting wine. Full deep golden color. Nice aroma with the emphasis on petrol. Decent riesling character with most of the sweetness absorbed. Almost a bit watery on the mid palate though. Better than I expected given the fill.

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• 1993 Zind-Humbrecht Tokay Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardive 93 Points

  France, Alsace

  Turns out I had mis labelled this and it was the regular bottling, not the VT. Still an absolutely lovely wine. Full rich thick with a lot going on. A bit of sweetness, but not quite enough to hold up to the pumpkin pie.

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