{"id":31,"date":"2008-07-21T01:38:29","date_gmt":"2008-07-21T01:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2008-07-21T01:40:38","modified_gmt":"2008-07-21T01:40:38","slug":"exploring-oregon-chardonnay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Oregon Chardonnay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChardonnayThe KensWineGuide.com Tasting Panel recently\u00c2\u00a0tasted Oregon Chardonnays blindly.\u00c2\u00a0 We all know that Oregon is well known for its world class Pinot Noir.\u00c2\u00a0 As a reader of KensWineGuide.com you also know we are quite fond and have recommended several of Oregon's Pinot Gris offerings in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 However, even though Chardonnay is the most popular white wine grape in this country, Oregon is not known across the country for this varietal.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A group of Oregon Chardonnay winemakers asked us if we would like to\u00c2\u00a0review some of their Chardonnays blindly and tell them what we think.\u00c2\u00a0 There were sixteen different bottles submitted.\u00c2\u00a0 The panel recommended seven of them as Very Good or better.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of the wines were from the 2006 vintage.\u00c2\u00a0 There was one from 2007 and three from 2005.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CarabellaOur winners came from seven different wineries.\u00c2\u00a0 Our overall winner came from the Carabella Winery<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Their 2006 \u201cDijon 76 Clone \u201d\u009d Chardonnay<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>$28 comes from Chehalem Mountain, Oregon.\u00c2\u00a0 This well received wine was round and smooth with tart apple and vanilla like flavors with notes of oak.\u00c2\u00a0 We scored this wine Very Good with 88.5 points.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The panel felt this winner would pair nicely with chicken picatta or lobster ravioli.<\/p>\n

Our second plac\"Rexe finisher was the 2006 Rex Hill \u201cReserve\u201d\u009d Chardonnay<\/a><\/strong> $28.\u00c2\u00a0 This wine was very well received and very food friendly.\u00c2\u00a0 It shows light lime and pear-like flavors and a touch of lightly toasted oak and minerals.\u00c2\u00a0 We scored this wine Very Good with 88.0 points.\u00c2\u00a0 On another note, Rex Hill sent us a second bottle of this “Reserve”, so I thought I would try it on a second group of Chardonnay lovers.\u00c2\u00a0 This group liked it a lot and would have scored the wine a little higher.\u00c2\u00a0 They all said they would have scored it 89 or 90 if they had to put a number\u00c2\u00a0on it.<\/p>\n

\"AdelsheimOur third place finisher came from Adelsheim Vineyards<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Their 2006 Caitlin's Reserve Chardonnay<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>$38 was balanced and creamy with oak-influenced ripe pear and mango flavors.\u00c2\u00a0 The panel felt this wine was very food friendly and would pair nicely with chicken ravioli with a smoky cream sauce or saltimbocca.\u00c2\u00a0Our fourth place finisher came from the Stoller Vineyards<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0Their 2006 \u201cSV Estate Grown\u201d\u009d Chardonnay<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>$28 was medium bodied, round, with honey and vanilla flavors\u00c2\u00a0and toasted oak influences.\u00c2\u00a0 This wine appealed to the panelists\u00c2\u00a0who enjoy an oaky influenced style of Chardonnay.\u00c2\u00a0 Overall, we scored this wine 87.43.\u00c2\u00a0 As an interesting aside, it was pointed out to us that three of our seven finalist wines were sourced from the Stoller Vineyard.\u00c2\u00a0 The other two wines from this vineyard were the Caitlin's Reserve and the Ian's Reserve.\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently we like the grapes from this vineyard!<\/p>\n

Next up was the 2006 Cristom \u201cGermaine Vineyard\u201d\u009d Chardonnay<\/a><\/strong> $25.\u00c2\u00a0 This was our roasted chicken wine.\u00c2\u00a0 It is nicely balanced, slightly creamy, and has pear-like flavors with a touch of oak.\u00c2\u00a0 Overall, we\u00c2\u00a0 thought this was a very nice food wine.\u00c2\u00a0 \"BethelOur next wine came from our Oregon Chardonnay coordinator. \u00c2\u00a0Pat, from Bethel Heights, coordinated\u00c2\u00a0sending us the samples\u00c2\u00a0and submitted her 2006 \u201cEstate Grown\u201d\u009d Chardonnay<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>$25.\u00c2\u00a0 This Chardonnay was on the lighter side.\u00c2\u00a0 It was balanced and\u00c2\u00a0crisp with fruit driven apple-like flavors\u00c2\u00a0and light oak on the back palate.\u00c2\u00a0 The panel felt this would be a perfect match with pecan encrusted tilapia.<\/p>\n

\"ChehalemFinally, there was my favorite, and the ace of the group.\u00c2\u00a0 The 2005 Chehalem \u201cIan's Reserve\u201d\u009d<\/a><\/strong> $34.\u00c2\u00a0 I felt this wine was very similar in style to many of California's rich Chardonnays.\u00c2\u00a0 It was medium-bodied, smooth, creamy, and showed distinguished apricot and integrated oak-like flavors.\u00c2\u00a0 A few of the panelists thought this offering was a bit over the top, but I thought it was just right if you like a rich style of Chardonnay.<\/p>\n

\"OregonOverall, we still felt that Pinot Noir is King and Pinot Gris is still Queen of the Oregon wine kingdom.\u00c2\u00a0 However, we do think you should explore Oregon Chardonnays and find a winery and Chardonnay that matches your tastes and palate.\u00c2\u00a0 You might even find your ace in the deck like I did.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enjoy and cheers,
\nKen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The KensWineGuide.com Tasting Panel recently\u00c2\u00a0tasted Oregon Chardonnays blindly.\u00c2\u00a0 We all know that Oregon is well known for its world class Pinot Noir.\u00c2\u00a0 As a reader of KensWineGuide.com you also know we are quite fond and have recommended several of Oregon's Pinot Gris offerings in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 However, even though Chardonnay is the most popular white […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,11,58,8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chardonnay","category-kens-wine-guide-tasting-panel","category-oregon","category-wine-recommendations","category-wine-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}