LENNDEVOURS Chardonnay Week 2006

Despite ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) groups and the woody/buttery/sweet renditions many CA producers punish our palates with, chardonnay remains the king of white wine in terms of sales and acreage here on Long Island.

I think name recognition at least partially drives this. The average wine drinker just doesn't know what gewurtztraminer tastes like and probably thinks of riesling as super-sweet and "not classy."

The charddonnay shift is on, however, so even chardonnay haters can find bottles with nice acid, crisp fruit and none (or little) if the 2x4 flavors of old.

All I know is that I have a ton of local chardonnay in my tasting queue...so to work my way through them, I'm announcing this week as LENNDEVOURS Chardonnay Week 2006. Every day I'll post reviews of at least one or two local bottlings.

It might be one of my least favorite varieties, but there are some local versions I enjoy. I bet you can guess what style they're made in.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Lenn, I finally got to my Channing Daughters Cuvee Tropical this weekend--I'm loving it--this is a chardonnay that I would actually choose to drink every night.

[g58]

Hey,
Good thing there's no such thing as Portuguese Chardonnay or we'd be fighting for the rights to theme week. Moments ago I just claimed this week to be Portuguese week (the synchronicity of our actions was eerily captured this morning on ewinecentral.com).
Personally, I like your idea better. I've been into Chardonnays a lot lately (Santa Rita Medalla Real for everyday; Bertrand Ambroise Saint Romain for special occasions) and the ABC thing you mention is indeed getting out of control. I look forward to your efforts, reading your reviews and trying to some new finds. And if you want some inexpensive rustic reds this week, you know where to go... Cheers!

[Kristin Donnelly]

I totally dig this trend. At Crush, I just edited an email and declared a new meaning to ABC: Awesome Bottles of Chardonnay.