Wine & Spirits - October 2020 - 56

YEAR'S BEST WILLAMETTE VALLEY CHARDONNAYS
W IL L AMETTE VALLEY

521165
521208

521150

91 | Raptor Ridge

$35

90 | EIEIO

$50

2017 Yamhill-Carlton Gran Moraine Vineyard Chardonnay (Best Buy) ^ Tightly wound
when first poured, this develops scents of lees
and lime after opening, broadening to apple
and smoke. It's cool and reserved, a lemony
rasp of acid providing firm closure, and the
nerve for grilled stuffed squid. (350 cases) §
521174
2018 Yamhill-Carlton Cuvée X Chardonnay ^ Jay McDonald ferments this wine in
long, skinny "cigar" barrels, then leaves the
wine in them for 18 months, with minimal
movement or handling. The 2018 is impressive in its oak character, the woody notes
overlaying lean accents of citrus and white
peach, the oak not a wallop but a kiss. The
result is a composed wine, grippy and balanced, to pour with a goat cheese salad with
walnuts. (63 cases) §

521176

90 | Elk Cove

$50

2017 Yamhill-Carlton Goodrich Chardonnay ^ Scents of almond extract and nutty pear
render this wine delicious and flavorful. It's
got an especially generous, broad texture; a
late-fall sipper to serve with bacon-wrapped
monkfish. (525 cases) §
521213

90 | Soléna

$50

2018 Yamhill-Carlton Domaine Danielle
Laurent Chardonnay ^ Irresistibly rich in
texture, this asserts itself with forward pineapple scents and judicious oak. It has a modest sweetness that would pair well with spicy
Thai chicken. (150 cases) §

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2020

95 | Bergström

$110

2018 Willamette Valley Sigrid Chardonnay ^ My notes on the 2018 Sigrid never seem
to end. This tête-de-cuvée blend from Josh
Bergström, drawn from valley-wide estate
sources (mostly biodynamically farmed)
starts off lean and citrusy and then heads
into unexpected directions-honey, flint,
honeycomb, salt, vanillin, wheat, apple, lime,
hazelnuts, lees... It's all of those things in a
youthful and complex mélange, sumptuous,
satiny, pillowed and generous, but with tension and driving minerality. Decant this and
sip slowly. (460 cases) §
521197

94 | Lingua Franca

$30

2018 Willamette Valley Avni Chardonnay
(Best Buy) ^ Drawn mostly from vineyards in
the Eola-Amity Hills, Avni seems to capture the nerve and tension of whites from
that AVA. The 2018, fermented with ambient yeasts and aged in mostly used barrels
and puncheons, reminded me of a golden
slope, not unlike Lingua Franca's sunny,
south-facing home vineyard, which tumbles
down toward the winery. Avni is warm and
marvelously complex, with notes of chilled
pineapple and toffee, of wheat and pear, one
moment tense and elegant, another moment
considerably richer. Drink some now but cellar a few bottles, too, to see where they will
take you. §
521136

93 | 00 Wines

$95

2017 Willamette Valley EGW Chardonnay ^ EGW (or "Extra Good White") is an
unabashed homage to the reductive style of
Coche-Dury and Leflaive Burgundies, a style
choice made clear from the very first whiff:
Gunflint, chestnut and toasted lees scents
leap out of the glass when it's first poured.
But this particular wine carries a light, lemony fruit that marries with the nutty notes
beautifully, and keeps the wine from being
too austere. Its taut mineral-acid structure
will give it a cellar life; keep it there for two
or three years. (346 cases) §

93 | David Paige

$30

93 | Iris

$30

93 | Walter Scott

$55

92 | 00 Wines

$75

2018 Willamette Valley Chardonnay (Best
Buy) ^ This is the first release for Dave Paige,
former longtime winemaker at Adelsheim,
under his own label. Nearly all of the fruit for
this wine comes from RPG, a mature vineyard
he and his partners have recently purchased,
set on volcanic soils in the Eola-Amity Hills.
He puts half of the blend through malolactic
conversion, and is largely laissez-faire from
there. The result feels limpid, bright and
tense from the moment it's first poured, with
flavors of clarified apple nectar and a whiff of
smoke. It has the cool-water clarity for saltroasted prawns. (200 cases) §
521185
2016 Willamette Valley Chalice Estate
Chardonnay (Best Buy) ^ From a cool Willamette Valley vineyard well south of Eugene,
this 2016 is all nuts and white flowers when
first poured, the aromas beguilingly savory
and fine. Initially rich, with golden apple flavors, the wine develops a fine weave of acidity
to cradle the fruit, rendering it lean and balanced. This has the poise to age. (156 cases) §
521223
2018 Willamette Valley Freedom Hill
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ From a cool coastal
site southwest of the Eola-Amity Hills, this
may be one of Walter Scott's most delicate
bottlings. It's lean and lemony, with scents
of green almond and smoked lees and flavors
so pure, bright and mouthwatering that it's
easy to drink quickly. Elegant and lacy; for
batter-fried pollack. (285 cases) §
521135
2017 Willamette Valley VGW Chardonnay ^
VGW stands for "Very Good White," a perfectly good sobriquet for this wine, sourced
mostly from Eola-Amity Hills vineyards,
including Seven Springs and Anahata. Chris
Hermann likes his whites to have a Burgundian flintiness, and this one's nutty lees and
flint notes are attractive and amplified by
generous, toasty oak. The whole effort feels
sumptuous and golden, with rich flavors and
an intriguing finish that falls to bee pollen

https://www.raptorridgewinery.com/product/2016-Gran-Moraine-Vineyard-Chardonnay?pageID=2F540299-BFF6-17EA-3BE1-608CFE67BC4B&sortBy=ProductTitle&maxRows=6& https://paigewines.orderport.net/product-details/0001/2018-Willamette-Valley-Chardonnay https://wineshop.bergstromwines.com/purchase-wines https://www.elkcove.com/our-wines/goodrich-chardonnay/

Wine & Spirits - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2020