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2005 Chardonnay's

Tasted January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2008 by jbaron with 491 views

Flight 1 (7 notes)

White
2005 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
96 points
Vibrant and alive; a good successor to my all-time-favorite 2004. Light on its feet yet full of energy and fruit and liveliness. The nose is penetrating, the mouth (the best part of this wine; full of oily citrus fruit with overtones of nuts and other oils) is quite good and very well balanced, while the length is mostly textural (back-of-the-mouth in this case) in nature as opposed to flavorful, though there's a caramel note on the back end. It's a delightful drink.
White
2005 Varner Chardonnay Spring Ridge Vineyard Bee Block USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
92 points
Really grew on me over an hour of being opened. I can't say that the wine changed all that much in flavor, though I suspect that it opened up a bit. Rather, I became accustomed to its sense of existence. It's got a very nice nose of chalk and white fruit, a mouth that's quite full of rocks and citrus, and a length that finally shows some non-citrus fruit. This is a wine of a particular style, and it's a good example of such. My favorite of the 2005 Varner's.
White
2005 Talley Vineyards Chardonnay Rincon Vineyard USA, California, Central Coast, Arroyo Grande Valley
90 points
Unlike the 2005 Rosemary's wine, this bottling is rather unfocused - good, but a bit on the shelly, mushy side. There's ample amounts of crushed, chalky stone and ripe white fruit in the mouth, a decent, rather unfocused nose. The length is minerally, if a bit on the short side for this wine. Seems like the other side of the coin from the Rosemary's bottling.
White
2005 Kistler Chardonnay Stone Flat Vineyard Parmelee-Hill USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
92 points
Young and tightly wound. Nice but reticent nose. Nice round mouth but very in-your-face, if ill defined. Very good length, but somewhat indeterminate. Excellent promise, but not quite there.
White
2005 Varner Chardonnay Spring Ridge Vineyard Home Block USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
91 points
Very nice nose of perfumed minerals and yellow citrus. Good mouth of nuts and (especially) oil and oily citrus fruit, mostly yellow. . Good length of citrus peel and intene yellow flowers. Very nice and very well balanced.
White
2005 Talley Vineyards Chardonnay Rosemary's Vineyard USA, California, Central Coast, Arroyo Grande Valley
94 points
First bottle of this bottling (many more to go), and quite young. Very penetrating nose, full of intense white flowers and orange fruit. Mouth full of round, orange fruit (and some white citrus) with a thick spicy overtone. Very, very well balanced, even for this bottling, and shows a lingering sense of etherealness, not something that I'd normally with this chardonnay. Nice, long length of spice and tart orange fruit. Very nice, even compared to other Rosemary's of years past, and it makes me want to drink this wine younger rather than older.
White
2005 Varner Chardonnay Spring Ridge Vineyard Amphitheater Block USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
89 points
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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