2023 La Crema Chardonnay Monterey
Holiday party selection. Forgettable. Good for a glass.
Minus Tide Chardonnay Manchester Ridge Vineyard 2021.
Reductive nose blows off after 15 mins, then flint, lemon, honeysuckle. Quite intense on the nose. Nice mouthfeel, everything is in balance but palate fell short. Charred lemon, sea spray, dash of single cream, good minerality. Kinda sad that the nose was beautiful but it wasnât that intense in my mouth, finish was quite short compared to my expectation too.
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Crushed a Sandar and Hem.
Pictures and story to follow.
Your wallet will hate to see me showing up at Morgen Long.
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John,
Appreciate the post and also the fact that you were able to make it happen in less than ideal conditions.
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Iâve had a few bottles of this. Cellar temp totally pulls it together.
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Always a favorite, anything from Santa Cruz mountains really, because the crisp fruit and medium plus acidity. And Rob is a great guy and winemaker.
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Thanks for making this weekâs charity event possible!
Iâm doing my best to participate during our Advent abstinence. I bent the rules here with a small taste, nursed over about a half hour to get a sense of how this wine would react to air (answer: very positively). But it was definitely a For Science opening for me. As I mentioned, others who tried it really really liked it.
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Started with a 3 btl study in UM. 2019/2020 believed to be flawed vintages. So a friend shared to learn:
2013 Ultra Marine heintz BdB (not pictured) - baseline on what good and proper UM should taste like. Having had many um in the past this is down the middle nice fruit, fleshy ripe apples, good acidity. Enjoyable
2019 UM heintz bdb - Green pepper, green asparagus with a strange sauerkraut hit in finish. Everyone tried / studied a bit and dumped btl.
2020 UM heintz bdb - This btl even more green with
a bitter asparagus dominant flavor. Again a study then dumped the btl.
JĂ©rĂŽme Lefevre - playing with fire - blend of 3 grapes including Chardonnay. Pours a slight pink. Lots of crushed stones and slate. Structured Pinot fruit dominates. But well rounded finish.
Selosse Rose - 2021 DG - I mean. Itâs excellent. I love Selosse
Emmanuel Brochet - 2009/2010 base blend. 50/25/25 of meunier, Pinot noir, and Chardonnay. Incredible richness, maturity showing beautifully. Plushy sweet fruit with nice acidity to balance.
2017 Paul Pillot Cailleret - need to try more of this producer. Really well balanced with great acidity. Really enjoyable.
2019 Kenjiro Kagami Mizuiro - 100% Chardonnay - I enjoy Kagami wines as they have a pretty high floor. Altho in side by sides with overnoy whites and ganevat Mon Pere they donât always âwinâ. This was an exceptional btl. Love the bits of natty but fruit is lush, acidity is striking, everything beautiful!
(Not pictured)
1999 Overnoy Green wax - Pierre made blend of Chardonnay and savignin. Their rarest bottling and often the best. This was wonderful. Maturity shows in a slightly nutty way. Great fruit.
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I had dinner last night at Thistle here in town with @Todd_Tucker and @Raj_Modak and some friends of theirs in from Arizona.
Raj brought a 2010 Crowley Four Winds Chardonnay that was delightful. Very fresh and alive, apple and pear blossoms, a fresh almost minty note, just a hint of pastry dough. Very lovely wine that, at 15 years old, has no real need to rush to drink it. Highly recommended and would be a good wine to remind us all that there are a number of great sites for Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley beyond the Eola-Amity Hills. I believe 2010 was the vintage Patricia Green Cellars handed off the fruit to Tyson, but @Jim_Anderson could verify that. Iâm very happy to have 3-4 bottles of this left in my own Crowley stash.
That is correct. We had proved over the previous 10 vintages that that vineyards was incapable of producing good Chardonnay.
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1996 Kalin Cellars Cuvee W
At first appearance Iâd say this is shot but talk about deception. Aromatically leaning towards dried apricot, honey, and tinned peach. Burnt orange and faint toast on the palate. This is actually quite striking. I think what does this wine a favor is that it isnât shy on ripeness. Alcohol looks to clock close to 14% and flavors feel ripe. I wonder if this was more chiseled or delicate if it would be showing so uniquely as it heads towards the amber side of things. Reminded me in some respects of a high caliber Jurançon. If I had more of these Iâd want to check in next fall and maybe one thereafter but personally I would want to catch it while tension feels intact. This was wonderful and surprising.
2016 Johan Visdom
Edgier style for sure, and this skirts the line for me but I find it quite evocative and appreciate how illuminating it feels. Brings me back to being a kid visiting my grandparents in Ft. Lauderdale. Straight up beach vibes this wine and it nails surfboard wax - candle and coconut notes. Plenty of orange tucked in with some sour plum too. This has time yet and would be fun to see in a few years. Sadly my last bottle. I enjoy it and it wouldnât be the style I gravitate towards (I lean towards Guy Robin, Vocoret, Hubert Lamy and Chagnoleau and locally Crowley, Morgen Long, Goodfellow, Walter Scott and Arterberry Maresh) but man itâs super joyful and chalkful of imaginative strokes. In a similar vein for me as ChanterĂȘves and I prefer this one much more where the latter seems naturally too obscure for me.
Side note for both of these and not a flavor I would gravitate towards on paper or while shopping but probably due to age in wood. Both have a wonderful very delicate butterscoth pudding note.
I really enjoyed both of these, and appreciate that they took me down a different chardonnay path than I normally venture down.
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Thank you Brig, for hitting us up with a SCM offering.
Mark,
Thanks for the great lineup and all the notes. I just recently had a 2012 UM BdB, and you are correct, these early vintages were definitely the baseline and got everyone excited about the program. I have some 19âs but havenât tried them. That was the last vintage I bought.
Marcus, Looks like your patience was rewarded with this vineyard and hopefully the remaining bottles will be as fresh. Upthread I had mentioned that you always urge us to try and keep our hands off Oregon chards and to try and give your bottles a good rest.
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2023 Domaine Céline & Fréderic Gueguen Bourgogne-Chardonnay CÎtes Salines
Just outside Chablis
But with good slope and great soil -
Kimmeridgian
Saline, stony, citrus fruit
Solid white wine, outperforms
*** Phil Trotter, Tom Hill and John Gilman also like this wine.
- 2014 Dauvissat-Camus Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru (12/14/2025)
I was initially concerned, as the cork looked like something from a nuclear waste site. Thankfully the wine was more than sound. Beyond the obvious lemon peel and oyster shell, what really stood out was the foundation of the wine. It was anchored in bedrock. There was an inner weight despite the brightness of the flavors. Fascinating.
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Chris,
Those Kalin whites seem to last forever, even though visually they get to look like motor oil.
Johan is an overlooked Oregon producer. Iâd like to see them back for Berserker Day.
Wow, Jim. Seems like we are covering every inch of white burg in the thread. Itâs great to hear about these hidden gems.
Thanks David for hitting us up with another Grand cru Chablis b
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