Wine Review: Price wars aside, chardonnay still the white darling

One wine variety that has taken a terrific beating in the past few years has been the chardonnay.

For centuries, chardonnay was the darling of the white wines. But, in recent years, the variety fell from grace due to the plethora of cheap, undistinguished versions that hit the marketplace. In many instances, makers of the better chardonnays were forced to lower their prices in order to increase sales and break even on their investments. The sales of the better chardonnay wines began to falter in favor of the rapidly rising popularity of the more affordable pinot grigio and the formerly faltering savignon blanc.

It appears chardonnay’s decline in popularity was due to simple arithmetic. The price for higher quality 2014 chardonnay grapes has been as high as a staggering $2,500 per ton. With an approximate wine yield of 756 bottles per ton, that makes the cost of grapes alone $3.31 per bottle. Add the costs of processing, aging barrels (about $600 apiece), bottling, labeling and shipping, and you realize why some wines are more pricy than others.

An unacceptable alternate for better chardonnay producers would be to employ lesser quality grapes, make a lower quality wine, to sell at a cheaper price.

One producer that would not sacrifice quality by using lesser grapes and produce a wine that was not up to its standards was the century-old Wente Vineyards, a Livermore Valley California winery still owned and operated by the founding family.

Wente Morning Fog 2013 Estate Grown Chardonnay ($15)
Throughout the process of making this wine, extra care is taken from the selection of the grapes to the winemaking procedures. All of this tender loving care resulted in an impeccable wine of great character and distinction. The wine features green apple and tropical fruit in both the aroma and flavor. Coupled with this is a positive oak and vanilla flavor. Unlike many of the lesser chardonnays, this wine has a long, fruity and interesting finish. Try this wine with seafood as well as almost any chicken-based dishes. This wine can easily elevate the variety to its former lofty position.

Riva Ranch 2013 Arroyo Seco Chardonnay ($22)
The once and future “king of the whites” is well represented in this offering. It is a bright and open wine that shows off all of the charms of a chardonnay. This wine is well oaked in both the aroma and flavor, creating a solid oak backbone. It also has sensations of vanilla, green apples and pears. This is a wine with a positive and lingering fruity and very creamy finish. 

Wente 2014 Eric’s Small Lot Chardonnay ($25)
This chardonnay has been produced without any oak aging, so the pure flavors and aromas of the grape are unaffected by anything external. After hand picking and sorting the grapes, they were gently crushed, pressed and fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. The traditional chardonnay aromas of pineapple, apple and citrus carry over to the flavor and merge into a collage of tropical fruits. There is also that elusive creamy mouth feel often found only in the more costly chardonnays, which expands the seductive nature of the finish.

Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe@suddenlink.net.