March 29, 2024 - This is great. Took a couple of days open (!) to bloom, but once it did, it revealed quite a lemon curd richness made buoyant by ample acidity and minerality. Oddly almost a sour diesel-like (as in the strain) note on the nose too.
December 25, 2023 - Very nice - ripe fruit, decent acidity and persistence.
November 26, 2023 - I didn’t try this until day 3, but it was very fine, richer and with more heft than a bottle last year. Plenty of green apple and golden raisin, with a crisp saline minerality giving it plenty of lift. 91 on day 3.
August 20, 2023 - Glassware: Grassl Cru
Prep: Pop n’ pour
Crystalline and straw-colored. Kaffir lime, green apple, lemongrass, and seashells on the nose. Medium body with focused, delicate yuzu and tangerine citrus initially on the palate followed by intense saline/briny minerals that linger on the finish for a few seconds. A very mineral-driven chardonnay, I’m a little less enthused as I’m drinking this without food but can imagine this wine pairing well with some oysters or other shellfish. Will see if it changes much over the next few days in the fridge but I don’t anticipate the fruit showing much more than today.
June 9, 2023 - What a wonderful aperitif. Crisp with light citrus and apple notes. Enjoyed it with Camembert on a warm Spring afternoon.
May 17, 2023 - I am definitely an enthusiast of WV chards. Vincent was recommended by Marcus Goodfellow as a winery that is making good wine. So I bought a couple of bottles of their Armstrong Chard, this is the first time trying it. PnP. I did not note any reduction on opening. Definitely austere, not enough "oomph" Very subtle mineral, steely, lemony fruit. I did detect a slight odd olive briney note. Not bad, but IMHO short of Goodfellow's '19 base WV chard.
April 15, 2023 - Taught with a bit of that citrus sweet tart fruit profile. Got more interesting with some air and some florals notes emerging. Pronounced salinity on crisp dry finish.
October 24, 2022 - I think this bottle was flawed, but I can't say exactly how. Day one it had a lot of energy but a clipped finish and some apple cider notes I associate with VA, but not so much as to make it undrinkable with food, and by day two this had mostly resolved or blown off, allowing me to actually enjoy the chablis-like finish. Interesting but also makes me wanna pop the others sooner rather than later.
September 10, 2022 - Wine was flawed, tasted like vinegar. The first bad Vincent I have had. I have two more I need to check on.
September 9, 2022 - Eminently crushable, if a bit young! Linear and taut, but not reductive; coiled, showing chalk and salt minerals, with a squeeze of lemon sunshine. Not a lot of depth yet, and I suspect it will require a few years to gain some weight. I'm trying hard not to use the C-word to describe this because it's Oregon and we should celebrate it for what it is... but yes, it's very C-like! Maybe the most C-like chard that I've had from Vincent so far. 91++