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Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Wine Pick Of The Week: Adelsheim chardonnay
There's a good reason many consumers complain that they are bored with chardonnay wines these days. Often the grape is overworked by winemakers trying to out-chardonnay each other. This results in wines with just too much of everything, including oak, alcohol, fruit and even sweetness.
Fact is, chardonnay is one of the most noble of all wine grapes and the king of the white grapes. The best examples out of Burgundy can fetch hundreds of dollars a bottle and many of the finest and most expensive sparkling wines from Champagne also are made with chardonnay.
So don't blame chardonnay. It's the winemakers who have lost their way. What they need to do is get back to basics and produce a wine without all the winemaking wizardry and just let the pure fresh fruit of the grape show through. And that's what David Adelsheim, winemaker and co-owner of Adelsheim Vineyards in Newberg, Ore., did with his new, no-frills chardonnay he calls CH.
Adelsheim is a pioneer of the Oregon wine industry, having planted his first vineyard in the Willamette Valley in the early 1970s. He has been producing wine since 1978. He was instrumental in introducing the Dijon clone of chardonnay vines, which has dramatically improved the quality of Oregon chardonnay.
The CH (an abbreviation of chardonnay) is as charming for what is does not have as for what it does. What it does not have is oak, butter flavors and aromas, or any residual sugar. What it does have is lots of very fresh fruit flavors and aromas of peaches and melons and nice mineral notes, like you might find in a sancerre or a Chablis. It is lively and crisp and just the thing for a hot summer day.
To find the wine, contact Noble Wines at 206-326-5274.
-- Richard Kinssies
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