The place for all things wine, focused on serious wine discussions.

2001 Rief Estate Chardonnay Reserve VQA (Estate Bottled)

Moderators: Jenise, Robin Garr, David M. Bueker

no avatar
User

Howie Hart

Rank

The Hart of Buffalo

Posts

6389

Joined

Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:13 pm

Location

Niagara Falls, NY

2001 Rief Estate Chardonnay Reserve VQA (Estate Bottled)

by Howie Hart » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:05 am

2001 Rief Estate Chardonnay Reserve VQA (Estate Bottled)
Mary Jo made a roast chicken dinner last night, so I looked into my stash of local Chardonnay. I almost brought the 2009 Arrowhead Springs, but found this and thought "Hmmm…. I don't recall ever having a 13 year old Chardonnay", so it was time for an adventure.
The back label has information one doesn't often find: Brix at harvest – 24.3; Acidity – 5.9 gms/litre. The label also mentions toasty oak, orchard fruit, chocolate bean, vanilla, sweetness and a "smooth" finish.
Clean cork, moist about half-way. Brilliantly clear, medium amber, with a generous nose of ripe pears, vanilla and bonfire smoke. However, in the mouth, the wine was not at all what I was expecting, based on the label descriptor. In fact, it was better than expected. Full, medium long finish, with good, cleansing acidity and a slight lingering viscous feeling in the mouth. It seemed higher in acid than I expected and had no hint of any sugar. I shortly found out why. After 5 minutes or so warming in the glass, very tiny bubbles were forming, indicating the presence of CO2. If the wine had been aged in oak for any length of time, I doubt if the wine was bottled with "spritz". The label mentioned sweetness that I didn't detect, so I'm guessing that it was bottled with a trace of RS, which, over the course of 12+ years, somehow fermented, but there was no trace of any particles or cloudiness. Overall, the wine was a superb match with the perfectly roasted chicken. I liked it.
Chico - Hey! This Bottle is empty!
Groucho - That's because it's dry Champagne.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ClaudeBot, Google [Bot], Patchen Markell and 4 guests

Powered by phpBB ® | phpBB3 Style by KomiDesign