Drink This Now! Lesson 4
This week I did the Drink This Now! Lesson 4 content. The objective of this is to taste wooded and unwooded wines, and determine what a difference the presence of oaky flavors can impart on the wines. When I went to Vintage Cellar to acquire my wines, I was brought over to the Yalumba 'Unwooded' Chardonnay from Australia which was a perfect match to the book. However, even though they didn't have an exact match to any of the 'wooded' wines, they directed me to something very similar to the Butterfield Station Chardonnay, which was the Butter Chardonnay from California. I also went to Kroger and picked up some unsalted table water crackers in order to cleanse my palate between the wine tastings.
The first thing I needed to do (Step 1) was perform a tasting on both of the wines, cleansing my palate with the crackers between them (Step 2), and make sure that they were still room temperature.
The first wine I tasted was Butter Chardonnay, which is produced by Jam Cellars in Lodi, CA. The vintage year for this wine is 2020, and the price was $19.95. It uses 100% Chardonnay grapes.
Wine Review:
My Review:
This wine was a very pale yellow, almost clear. It had a smooth smell, toasty, and almost like sawdust. It had a strong nose of vanilla extract, surprisingly. It tasted smooth, warm, creamy, a little bit dry on the center of the tongue. Had strong notes of green apple with undertones of butter, lanolin, and nuttiness, with a medium body.
The second wine I tasted was the Yalumba 'Unwooded Chardonnay' produced by The Y Series in Angaston, South Australia. This wine had a vintage year of 2021, and the price was $13.95. It is made of 100% Chardonnay grapes.
Wine Review:
My Review:
The color of this wine was just slightly yellow, even more close to being clear than Butter Chardonnay. It smelled a lot more fruity, like pear, apple, and maybe even a hint of citrus like tangerine. It tasted bright and fruity like apples, cucumber, and peach. It was a bit sour, with a slight dryness on the center of the tongue, and a light body.
Step 3 was to stop and take a break to assess the descriptors I used for each of the wines.
I noticed that I used a lot more 'smooth' or 'creamy' sort of descriptors for the Butter Chardonnay than the Yalumba Chardonnay. This would make sense since it has an oaky influence and tastes of malolactic fermentation, and the Yalumba Chardonnay has no oak influence. Of course it still had slight notes of fruit though, since it is made of grapes after all. The Yalumba had many more fruity descriptors because there was no notes of oak or malolactic fermentation overshadowing the easily overpowered tastes.
Step 4 was to throw the bottles in the fridge to put a good chill on them, and repeat the tasting exercise.
Butter Chardonnay:
After being chilled, this Chardonnay exhibited notes of nuttiness and vanilla extract, while still having undertones of grape and toastiness. It was a very smooth texture, even more so then when unchilled, and was slightly sweet, not very dry/tannic at all and had a very creamy feeling in the mouth. It also exhibited a light body.
Yalumba Chardonnay:
After being chilled, the Yalumba Chardonnay smelled almost sort of sour, like fruit that has gone a little bad. It tasted not sour at all, but close to water with a finish of slight florals (jasmine?) and a cucumber peach aftertaste with undertones of the same tangerine citrus. This wine was not sweet or dry after chilling, with a light body.
How the wines changed:
I noticed that after being chilled, most of the dry, tannic flavors of the wine were masked by the temperature and they both tasted more smooth. The Butter Chardonnay had more notes of nuttiness than it did before chilling, and felt more creamy. The Yalumba Chardonnay smelled more sour than fresh compared to when it wasn't chilled, and after chilling the florals came through more strongly. The Butter Chardonnay also exhibited a slightly lighter body after chilling.
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