Picked up at a Berserker Day at some point. 2019 “Bois Experience” Chardonnay. Can’t find a damn thing about it online. Buttery, golden tart baked apple. Wish I could find out more about it as it’s well outside my wheelhouse. Anyone know what’s up with this?
Did you contact Michael Sterling @ Franny Beck?
Hey Michael, saw your question and went back to the release notes. Reading back on what I wrote about the wine then is a nice reminder of how interesting I found it. Here are those notes. I think you nailed it because you’ll see that you and I found similar things in the glass.
From March 2021 Wine Club Release:
In 2019 we started working with two new Chardonnay vineyard sites, Bois Joli in the Eola-Amity Hills and Riverside Vineyard in the McMinnville AVA. The two vineyards are almost as diametrically opposed as you can get in the Willamette Valley. Bois Joli is a high elevation (700+ feet), own rooted, 38 year old vineyard with clone 108 planted, a very late ripening Chardonnay clone that brings an extreme raciness to the wine. Conversely, Riverside vineyard sits just about as low as allowed to be part of an Oregon AVA on the North Yamhill River with an experimental block of 28 heritage Chardonnay clones planted over a half acre. The idea with this particular vineyard is to try and introduce new clonal material to the Willamette Valley with hopes of increasing distinction in the Valley’s growing Chardonnay character.
The blending of these two distinct vineyards, one old vine and mono-clonal and the other, young and diverse, produces a wine that truly finds its feet in two worlds. It is racy and broad at the same time. It leans citrus while showing tropical characteristics. It is linear and slatey while having a plush finish. Such joy a to drink! We named it “Bois Expérience”, loosely “Experimental Woods” as an homage to the two sites from where the fruit was harvested. On the nose I get fresh cut lemon fruit with lime meringue pie. There’s a bruised green apple, oxidative nuttiness that gives way to this fresh line-hung laundry note. More tropical notes follow.
On the palate there is an attack of fresh acidity, more Granny Smith green apple and citrus peel. The lines of this wine are straight and true from entry through midpalate and then open up to full flavors of baked apple pie, graham cracker and brioche. The wine is flinty and has a sense of river rock salinity. I would serve the wine at cellar temperature-plus, no need to over-chill this wine. The acidity will meet the fruit profile and aromatics better at warmer temperatures. I’d also expect this wine to evolve over the next ten years. Anecdotally, I opened a bottle and followed it over seven days, watching it improve and develop daily. So, if you drink now, give it an aggressive decant and let it warm up on the table. Stick your remaining bottles in the cellar for a few years.
Thanks so much for all this info! This aligns with my thoughts on the wine after a few days in the fridge. Wish I had another to try again in a few years.