Nutty butter nougat screaming STEAL THIS CHARD. Roasted meat, roasted tires, roasted skin and cocoa-butter, latex and pure vibrant weedyness flowing out of a pale yellow glass definitely tinged green. Honeydew and fig, butterscotch and pine-pitch, speckled oak birds bobbing about in the tall sea-blown grass. So clean and nice, nothing overt, nothing acute except a shard of acid showing through the nose.
Everything you want from this variety blasts onto the tongue. The richness, the smoky depth, the neutral oak and baby barrel playthings dangling over a toddler’s bed but at 5, he mostly ignores them and can easily climb out. Mid-palate the absolute DESSERT that is good chard flows easily over the tongue, coating everything and reminding you why this is indeed the KING of white grapes. Grainy pith fights off all bulbous imaginations–each of them claiming superiority but this is no #influencer black-and-white “OMG it’s so rich/OMG it’s so acidic” NO! There is a beautiful grey area in chardonnay and that is this wine.
So many people put a guilt-trip on Chardonnay if it is rich, like stainless steel and zero malo are the ideals but look at the shit those people say about other wines and what they drink. Don’t believe a word of it. Those are keywords used by the shallowly educated to wow the easily swayed. Chardonnay CAN be bacon & eggs. Chardonnay CAN be vanilla shake. Chardonnay CAN be decadent and rich and round and buttery. It’s how everything is handled underneath that counts. And this one does it perfectly.
2014 VELVET BEE Chardonnay Rita’s Crown Vineyard Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara Co. 14.45
Stephen McConnell 