The 12 LI Wines of Christmas: #1 Wolffer Estate Vineyards 2003 Estate Selection Chardonnay
This post is a part of my 12 Long Island Wines for Christmas series that will run from now until Christmas 2007. See the entire series here.
Welcome to my 2007 12 Long Island Wines for Christmas, where I share with you the 12 wines that I’m most excited about and consider the some of the best Long Island had to offer in 2007.
Today’s wine is Wolffer Estate Vineyards’ 2003 Estate Selection Chardonnay. I’ve written about this wine before, but I was reminded this past weekend of just how much I enjoy it.
I served it with the pasta course of our 2nd Annual Long Distance Supper Club Christmas dinner, a fun ravioli that I made by roasting acorn squash, pureeing it with sauteed apple, fresh goat cheese, a little ricotta and baking spices. Several of our guests don’t like barrel fermented chardonnay, but I had a feeling that this one would change their minds. It did.
I too used to eschew barrel-fermented chardonnay, but wines like this one are the reason I don’t anymore. Yes, it’s fermented 100% in French
oak (20% new) and nose
is toasty, as you’d expect, but ripe peaches and apricots are joined by roasted marshmallows and vanilla. Medium-to-full bodied,
the stone fruit flavors are rich and mouth-filling with more subtle toasty oak
and vanilla play beneath. Perfectly balanced by acidity, there is an intriguing
kiwi note on a very lengthy finish.
