2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay

Norm's Tasting Notes
by: Norm Bentley
North Georgia Wine Advisor
normwine@bellsouth.net





2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay

We are back from our little cottage by the sea, and paradise! The seafood was great and the fishing was pretty good, so we were able to enjoy a dinner of fresh caught Speckled Sea Trout, my favorite fish behind salmon and grouper. While we sampled several good bottles of wine during our stay in paradise, my favorite was an old standby, the 2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Chardonnay. I wrote about this wine about ten months ago and had this to say:

"Quite often I am asked to recommend a good Chardonnay, for a decent price, to be served at weddings or other social gatherings. During the past five years this has been an easy question to answer because regardless of vintage, the Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay from the Columbia Valley In Washington has been a great answer! Its scores have been consistently in the high eighties and low nineties year after year.

The 2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle is an in-between style, which is somewhat classic French, and a little bit California, and is neither too fruit forward, nor too steely in nature. It has the true Chardonnay flavors of apple and pear which are accented by a hint of oak. This vintage was aged surlie for about six months in both French and American oak. The finish is clean and crisp, with a little toasty oak and a slight citrus breeze, as it reminds the palate of the need for just one more sip. The alcohol content is 14%.

This is one Chardonnay which is so consistant that I bought several bottles of this 2010 vintage without even tasting it, because I new it would be good! We enjoyed this bottle with broiled Cod fillets accompanied by pasta Alfredo, and a fresh garden salad. It was wonderful! This wine will be excellent with almost any fish or fowl dish, or just by itself."

I had scored this one an 89 last November, when it had just come into the marketplace, and I am sure that now the vintage is probably running out, as the 2011 should be arriving pretty soon. However if you can find any of this wonderful 2010 still on the shelf, buy some, I would now score it a 90, and I believe it will drink well for the next couple of years, and it is great with trout and other mild white fish.

Score: 90
Price: $10 - $14

Norm

Norm's Tasting Notes can also be accessed at his Blog: http://normwine.blogspot.com/

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