2018 Merryvale Chardonnay Silhouette

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 91.5 points

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  4/18/2024 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 93 Points

  First of 2 ($43.99@) from the big box wine store a couple of months ago. On the nose and palate, medium vibrant notes of apples, pears and lesser amounts of orange rind and tropical fruit cocktail, sweet white florals, river rocks and lees. Very light gold/crystalline, medium to full bodied, medium to thick legs. Medium acidity, which is well integrated, no heat. VG complexity, persistence and intensity. I’m fond of this producer, particularly its Profile and have had many of its other wines with more mixed feelings, but this is my first go with this cuvee, the white analog to the Profile (get it, Silhouette, Profile?). A lot of what gets CA chards over the hump of acceptability for me is absence as much as presence: lack (or at least minimal) oakiness, vanilla, sweetness and present alcohol. Check, check, check and check. This wine presents with notable balance, with just enough richness so that you’d confidently put your chips on its CA provenance. This gives this a nice glide and delivery, making a really good sipper on its own, and I recall it being solid against a couple of seafood dishes, although writing this TN 2 weeks later, don’t remember what they were. What this wine lacked for me was enough energy and delineation, which could have taken it closer to excellence, and made it more distinctive drinking experience. Since most of my wine consumption is on my own, I rarely have more than one bottle open at a time (dust on my Coravin, alas), but this was the unusual occurrence where I had a glass left of the ‘16 Morlet CdC left from dinner the night before I popped this. That wine is my favorite chard from either side of the Pond, 4x more than I paid for this, and I wondered on opening how this could compete, and the answer was a TKO in favor of Luc, with his wine showing far superior frame, tension and depth. The showing here is solid, and at what I paid, a bit over half of retail (note that with careful shopping, this producer’s wines can be often had at deep discounts to retail/winery prices), a good but unexceptional choice. Glad for one more, but probably wouldn’t be a buyer again at this price. Should be at or around peak but will drink well for at least a few more years. 93+

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  6/21/2022 - Ben Christiansen wrote:

  Big and rich on the nose. Note quite peachy, something else but fruit there. And then good salinity on the palate. Actually quite fine. Bright and fresh. And again, shockingly well done. Probably the best Merryvale that I have had.

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  5/29/2022 - gmmilani Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Citrus, apple with some oak. Recommend drinking with rich seafood or something to balance it. Fine sipping it, but better with food.

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