This time
we do a little mainstreaming! On the menu: Chardonnay from Israel’s (probably) most
famous quality winery. The Yarden Chardonnay 2009 from the Golan Heights Winery. There are a couple of other more
sophisticated and more expensive Chardonnays under the Yarden label (e.g. Odem
or Katzrin). Today’s wine is the standard edition from the flagship label
Yarden [= River Jordan,
but not a watery wine river ;-)]. So much to the info I got left in my brain. The
rest you may find on the wineries website. I tried it and failed. The
navigation on the site was too challenging (and maybe nerve-wracking) for my
mouse and me ;-).
The colour
of the Yarden was pretty regular for a relatively young Chardonnay.
Not too dark and not too bright. So, nothing really to mention! The nose was
totally dominated by intense scents of tangerines and some rather aged lemons.
After a while hints of herbal fragrances and bergamots developed. I guess the
nose was very fine, I liked it, but maybe a bit slick, a bit broad and a bit
too muscle mania. Surely not very complex one! At first the taste was extremely
buttery and over-wooded. This impression eased after approximately an hour.
Then, the fruitful flavours of tangerines, herb’ish bergamots as well as a bit
sweet’ish aged lemons took over. Rather elegant vanilla flavours, here and there
some fresh honey and milk (?, probably just me) joined the club. Not a lot of
depth or challenging demands. For me a bit too slick and peachy! Somehow it reminded me of a decent and reasonable
Sonoma Chardonnay. Can’t really tell you why! In blind tasting I would have "wagered":
100% California!
A little bit less alcohol (14,5%) would have been nice. To be honest, it was a
little bit too rough from the alcohol and muscle side! But not too disturbing anyway!
Still a very decent Chardonnay for not too much money (if I compare it with its
Californian siblings). Maybe a bit too young!
No comments:
Post a Comment