By Chadsey's Cairns - Chardonnay

 

2006 Chardonnay (unoaked): $20.00
We have sold a lot of this wine to people who steer away from heavily oaked Chardonnay.  Pear and pineapple with generous buttery mouthfeel and underlying unoaked crispness.  Lingering finish.  Every wine has a story.  This one began tragically when we lost most of our Chardonnay harvest in the 2006 rains.  However, our friends, the Laileys from Niagara, rescued us with offers of their own Chardonnay grapes.  The languorous charm comes from their grapes.  The little kick-ass lilt is all that remains of ours.

2007 Chardonnay: $21.00
Lightly oaked but with the clean finish that you expect from an unoaked Chablis-style Chardonnay. This wine reflects the terroir of each of our three vineyards. It fills the mouth with a satiny viscosit with our characteristic peach, pear and pineapple qualities and then has a long lingering finish that makes it a great companion to seafood and lightly seasoned white meats.

NOTES ON CHARDONNAY

Because it is such an easy-going varietal, at home in nearly any growing condition and always willing to please, Chardonnay comes to the table in a range of styles from lean and tart to rich and creamy.  A full-bodied, broad wine, Chardonnay picks up tasting characteristics from the soil and usually needs to be cluster thinned to maximize flavours.  In cool summers we will produce unoaked Chardonnay, dry and refreshing, a welcome change for people weary of oak; the harvests of hot summers will be reserved for oaking to produce the lovely buttery, sophisticated and mellow mouth-feel that comes from Chardonnay’s particular affinity with oak contact.  [3.8 acres; planted 2000-02]