Posts Tagged“steel fermented”

Bedell Cellars 2014 Chardonnay

bedell-2014-chardonnay

Chardonnay with little or no oak footprint have gained popularity in recent years, but for Bedell Cellars’ winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich, it’s not a new style. He’s been making unoaked chardonnay for his entire winemaking career, dating back to 1982. He still makes steel-fermented chardonnay, but it’s not bottled alone. Instead, most of it goes to the winery’s First Crush White, where it’s blended with sauvignon blanc and riesling. “I want a bit more complexity in our varietal chardonnay,” he told me in an email. As with all of his wines, fermentation was done with ambient yeasts and while about 50% of…

Wine Blogging Wednesday #36: Let’s Get Naked

nakedchard2

Now that I have your attention, let’s get down to business. Next month, on August 8 to be exact, we’ll be celebrating the three-year anniversary of Wine Blogging Wednesday. Actually, in the early days, it was called World Wide Wine Blogging Wednesday. But, participants quickly streamlined the name and the rest is Internet history. What started out as a few hardcore wine blogging geeks has really grown into more than I could have imagined. For that, I am grateful. Thank you to every person who has ever participated. But let’s stop looking back…let’s look forward. The theme for WBW #36…

WTN: Peconic Bay Winery 2005 Steel Fermented Chardonnay (North Fork of Long Island)

I can still remember my first sip of Peconic Bay Winery’s steel fermented Chardonnay like it was yesterday. I had just moved to Long Island and was then only flirting with the region and its wines. This flirtation has since become an all-out love affair and I count this wine as one that stoked the fire of my neophyte palate. At the time, my vision of Chardonnay was of the flabby butter bombs with big everything – oak, vanilla, fruit – that I had tasted from both Australia and California. Based on my early experiences with those wines, I used…