Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Chardonnay 2011
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BN#468983 |
Regular$11.99 Web Sale Only$9.99 SKU11765 |  |
Chateau Ste. Michelle
My goal with the Columbia Valley Chardonnay is to make a pleasurable, food-friendly Chardonnay. This is a fresh, soft style of Chardonnay with bright apple and sweet citrus fruit character and subtle spice and oak nuances. We blend Chardonnay grapes from vineyards all over Washington's Columbia Valley to make this a complex, interesting wine. The sur lie aging gives it an appealing softness.
Wine Spectator
Light, with zingy grapefruit peel and apple flavors, finishing with a silky feel. Drink now.
Score: 86.
—Harvey Steiman,
November
30,
2012.
Wine Advocate
For thoughts on Chateau Ste Michelle's uniqueness and recent evolution, consult my extensive April, 2013 text designed to introduce recent tasting notes. Ste Michelle's 2011 Chardonnay - for a few astonishing statistics about which see the introduction to my coverage of this winery - is overwhelmingly raised in barrel, but as Bertheau explains "we never push this wine through malo, so probably only 70% or 80% goes through" and, like raising a small share in tank, this approach enables Ste Michelle to balance richness and freshness. To my palate, there is a bit of disharmony between the vanilla icing and caramel character on display here and that of tart-edged apple skin and citrus oils. That said, there is abundant sheer juiciness and a polished, manifestly lees-enriched texture, and the last thing you could say about this is that it's boring or fails to stimulate the palate. What's more, you have to call it good value. I suspect it will be best enjoyed within a couple of years. (The most recent Indian Wells bottling I tasted, from 2010 and the Wahluke Slope, exhibits the enhanced expression of malo-lactic conversion and barrel exposure - one-thirds new and majority American oak - that are the winery's intentions, but I found it less successful due to its bitterness and lack of primary juiciness.)
Score: 86.
—David Schildknecht,
March
2013.
All sizes are 750mL unless otherwise noted.
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All pricing and availability subject to change.
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