WTN: St. Supery Chardonnay (Unoaked)

2006 St. Supery Oak Free Chardonnay - Napa Valley

I was not a fan of St. Supery Chard in the past, but thought I would take a stab at their unoaked offering. Apparently they are doing all of their Chardonnay in unoaked fashion from here on.

Color: Light straw.

Nose: Pear, honey dew, a slight whiff of hospital antiseptic.

Taste: Tangy acidity. Apple cider and melon with lots of stone mixed in. Kind of a salty, sea water note on the finish. Quite dry. All and all a tasty Chardonnay. Much better than their previous oak bombs. Would definitely buy again.

Sam,
It has been a while since I wandered down the domestic Chardonnay aisle. I'll watch for this one.
Danke.
Wm.

Thanks for the TN, I wouldn't have noticed this otherwise - I'm sure many in this group don't even look in the U.S. Chardonnay section anymore. But I'll make a point to hunt this one up.

This is a positive sign. St. Supery has always had pretty good grapes but IMO they went just haywire with the oak over the past few years and produced some really one-dimensional, out of balance wines. Here's hoping they'll similarly dial back the oak on their CabS from "kill" to "stun."