Talley Vineyards
Rosemary's Vineyard Chardonnay
Arroyo Grande Valley, Central Coast, California, USA
Who in his right mind would open an 20-ish year old California Chardonnay with any sort of expectation of pleasure? I am not a fan of the oaky vanilla high alcohol style, and my view is that they generally do not improve with age. I have had some pretty well-known names (nameless for now) that have been downright disappointing at half the age of this one. But every rule has an exception, and this is one. Serendipity left it in the cellar until it was too old to risk with friends, except very good ones, and so it was up to Janet and me to try half of it last week with roasted cod, and the other half this week with salmon. Savory, good acid, no oxidation, the oak that might have been too forward in its youth now more balanced, this is a fine wine, meursault-like but for the fatiguing effect of 14.5% abv. By which I mean I wish I could have drunk the whole bottle the first night, but it was just too heavy.....on the plus side, it was still good with the salmon after a week in the fridge!
Who in his right mind would open an 20-ish year old California Chardonnay with any sort of expectation of pleasure? I am not a fan of the oaky vanilla high alcohol style, and my view is that they generally do not improve with age. I have had some pretty well-known names (nameless for now) that have been downright disappointing at half the age of this one. But every rule has an exception, and this is one. Serendipity left it in the cellar until it was too old to risk with friends, except very good ones, and so it was up to Janet and me to try half of it last week with roasted cod, and the other half this week with salmon. Savory, good acid, no oxidation, the oak that might have been too forward in its youth now more balanced, this is a fine wine, meursault-like but for the fatiguing effect of 14.5% abv. By which I mean I wish I could have drunk the whole bottle the first night, but it was just too heavy.....on the plus side, it was still good with the salmon after a week in the fridge!
Aug 28th, 2017