Wow. A California Chardonnay that doesn’t bring up visions of rows and rows of oak barrels? Yep. I’m talking about the 2006 Scheid Chardonnay. While it did touch some oak, the overall palate of this wine is more indicative of its 70% stainless steel side. 

The color is light in color, yellow to clear. At first glance, my mind went over to the Viognier side due to its lighter complexion. No gold at all here.

On the nose, this wine exhibits hints of honey dew topped with gorgonzola cheese along with a bit of lemon dripped on top. If you reach for it, you can find that butter, but it is very slight. The overall feel of the nose is acidic and leans heavily towards the citrus side. This wine does well after opening for about an hour. At first sniff, the wine displayed much more citrus aspects, sliding towards the melon family. Yet, after giving it a chance to breathe, the small pieces of gorgonzola cheese came to rest on the honeydew and melon and the lemon started to shine.

For how clear the Scheid Chardonnay is, I was impressed at how well it coated my tongue and the wine gave off a larger mouth feel than I was expecting. The honeydew continued onto the mid-palate and continued until it trailed off on the finish. There was a buttery complex to the taste, but it was more of a non-fat buttery style. If you are a bit perplexed by this, try a glass of non-fat milk and then 2% milk. The 2% is much thicker than the non-fat.

The finish is clean and even. The honeydew, as I mentioned before, is there on the finish, but the wine picks up some more lemon at the very end. This is one of the few wines where I’ve seen a flavor at the beginning and at the very end, literally disappearing during the middle. While it could be drank solo, I’d give this wine an entrée or an appetizer for it to really flourish. 

A delectable wine that utilizes two different fermentations styles, 70% stainless steel & 30% French Oak barrels. A great combo. For a slight departure from the California too-much-oak Chardonnay, check out the 2006 Scheid Chardonnay

Where you can buy this wine:
You can buy this wine directly from Scheid at http://www.scheidvineyards.com/. 

Cost:
$22

Tags: Chardonnay, Monterey County

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 8:35 am and is filed under Chardonnay, Monterey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.