Emerson Vineyards, Chardonnay, 2006
Here's the last installment of our round-up of this years wines from Emerson Vineyard. If you don't know this vineyard, or didn't get a chance to read the other reviews, I'd encourage you to read those too -- these guys make very nice, affordable wine. So, on to the Chardonnay ...
White wines don't always smell like much, and often Chardonnay's can be especially lacking in strong aromas, making our job harder. So understand that what we smell can be -- especially in this case -- very much muted. So with that caveat, this wine smelled like tangerine. For me the smell reminded me of flat 7up -- that sort of light citrus smell. Denise said she smelled parsley too -- "no wait" she said, "it's narcissus flower!". She has a better nose than I.
The most predominant taste is tangerine and lemon -- it flashes tangerine, and then mutates into a soft (non-acidic) lemon. But, and there was much perplexing about this, there was something "green" in there. We agreed on that, even if we couldn't exactly agree on what that green thing was. Denise said it was grass. Hmmm. Not exactly that for me. But then, I couldn't quite get my head wrapped about what that was. Maybe peapods? Perhaps. And as a wine blogger, it seems silly to say this, but this tasted very much like the inside of a green seedless grape. But it really did -- that sort of light citrus taste.
The finish was also lemon, but also mineral. Denise said the finish was "rock"; sort of that gravel, basalt taste (and yes, we mean this in a good way).
But before you say this sounds Burgundian, this wine was also very heavy in body. The weight was really more like a heavier Chardonnay from California and from those from Burgundy; however, it completely lacked all that thick butter indicative of those wines from the south. So somewhat thick, but not buttery (which we liked).
Cost:
Rating:
8.0