This thread exemplifies the kind of conversations that keep me reading here and learning. I read a fair amount on wine (other than Wine Berserker, I’m presently in Lepeltier’s great One Thousand Vines) and there’s a temptation to simply follow advice that I’m learning to trust. I’m resisting this temptation. One way I branch out and make my wine consumption interesting – a little craft in itself – is by trying unlikely OR Chardonnays to better understand how they taste young and age, and Grochau and Drouhin are two examples. These are very different makers in multiple ways, from size to winemaking approach. Opposite would be too strong a word, but they are markedly different.
So, I’m coming to the question of aging from the perspective of the drinker. In other words, by what circumstances – related to juice oxidation, phenolic extraction at pressing, the site – lead to early aging, too modest mouthfeel, stewed notes, loss of vibrant fruitiness, feeble and odd acid profiles, and feeble and oddly placed warmth (nutty, vanilla, buttery characteristics)?
I suspect that the Drouhin and Grochau wines fall into the category William describes for different reasons, with the former turning to predetermined “best practices” while the latter might have been working more out of opportunity or happenstance. I’m not sure about this. It would take longer visits to Willamette to gain a better appreciation of its fine-grained winemaking histories. That’s part of the fun of consumption as a craft of its own, particularly in a region whose histories have barely been published.
I’ve been appreciating wine for decades but it’s only been for about 3-4 years that I’ve taken a more serious interest. My introduction to OR Chardonnay happened with the '21 vintage of PGC’s estate bottling. I was struck by this wine’s distinct flavor profile, its positioning of warmth at the end of the palate, the presence of an of-its-place minerality. It felt like I was drinking something different, not WB but a new North American expression, and this excited me.
Your list of good Chardonnay producers makes sense to me. The easier route would be for me to follow along. And for the most part I likely will. Rather infuriatingly, I saw on this site somewhere that you wrote Grochau’s PN are good value long before I thought I had made a discovery! There’s a lot of wheel reinventing in the art of consumption. Nevertheless, I want to get there on my own and with understanding, even as I do so with guidance. It’s fun to do it this way. And I’m acting under neither the pressure of career enhancement nor profit extraction thus limiting my interest in learning efficiency.
There’s a question for you, Marcus, here. Are there distinct phenolic extraction methods being practiced among the WV Chardonnay producing wineries you list? I’m curious about how harvest temperature, the must’s contact with seeds vis-a-vis skin and stem affects flavor profiles, how sulfiting might slow oxidation of polyphenols. If you do think there are distinct methods that give WV Chardonnays characteristic profile(s), do these methods also indicate the drinking windows you mention above? Put differently, separate from the WB viticultural practices described above by @Wil_Raley, does WV practice distinct viniculture that contributes to its Chardonnay flavors and aging characteristics?