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750ml
Bottle:
$39.84
$44.00
The color of this wine is best described as pale straw with a slight tint of emerald green. The nose opens as a...
750ml
Bottle:
$24.94
$35.94
Moving to the four Chardonnays I was able to taste, the 2018 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast reveals a light gold color as...
1.5Ltr - Case of 6
Bottle:
$91.80
This is a generous, layered white with lots of cooked apples and hints of coconut and vanilla. Full body. Phenolic...
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$51.93
This is a generous, layered white with lots of cooked apples and hints of coconut and vanilla. Full body. Phenolic...
750ml
Bottle:
$42.53
6 bottles:
$41.68
COLOR: Medium Gold.
NOSE: Pronounced pear and golden yellow apple lined with a floral note of jasmine, apricot, and...
750ml
Bottle:
$46.50
12 bottles:
$45.57
Stone fruits, buttered citrus, white currants, and brioche all emerge from the 2018 Chardonnay, a beautiful...
750ml
Bottle:
$44.69
$46.00
The wine is plush and enveloping, and yet like all of Jim Clendenen's wines, it also remains light on its feet. Hints...
750ml
Bottle:
$41.82
12 bottles:
$40.98
Floral aromatics of violets and red flowers, with a bright palate of fresh yet salty berry and dense but ripe,...
750ml
Bottle:
$54.55
12 bottles:
$53.46
• 100% Zinfandel.
• Sourced from estate vineyard in St. Helena.
• All native fermentation.
• Aged for 11...
750ml
Bottle:
$34.94
12 bottles:
$34.24
The Estate Chardonnay shows great focus, epitomizing nature of the Eden Rift Estate. It is bright with notes of...
750ml
Bottle:
$57.93
6 bottles:
$56.77
This just takes off at the finish, with bright, tangy acidity and plenty of minerality. Full-bodied and so tangy and...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$61.99
Creamy and rich-tasting, with concentrated apple pastry and ripe pear flavors that feature a silky texture. Mineral...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$17.37
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Dark colour and a nose with notes of spices and
pepper, as well as ripe and jammy red berries....
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$42.12
Satiny, rich, and complex, with layers of butterscotch, fig, apricot and pear that are impeccably balanced. Bold and...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$38.81
An unusually deep gold color and well-developed, mature aromas and flavors set this wine apart from the crowd, along...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$74.93
Aromas are complex with citrus, yeastiness, pear, honey and just a touch of sweet, toasty French oak. Across the...
750ml
Bottle:
$38.88
$40.00
12 bottles:
$38.10
A real briar patch of a Zin, with appealingly rustic wild cherry, spiced cinnamon and bay leaf accents that take on...
750ml
Bottle:
$50.40
$56.00
Beautiful apple and crushed stone with white pepper and lemon curd on the nose. Full-bodied with layers of fruit and...
750ml
Bottle:
$44.84
$48.00
This elegant wine merges tangy and rich aspects beautifully. It starts with crisp apple and ginger aromas, then...
Chardonnay Ice Wine Zinfandel 2018 United States California
Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.
The precise origins of what became known as the Zinfandel grape variety are uncertain, although it has clear genetic equivalents in both Puglia and Croatia. However, when it was brought to the New World in the mid 19th century, it became known as the Zinfandel, and has been consistently popular and widely grown ever since. These very dark and very round grapes have a remarkably high sugar content, resulting in relatively high levels of alcohol in the wines they are made into, with bottles often displaying as much as fifteen percent. What makes the Zinfandel such an interesting grape, though, is the fact that the flavors produced by this varietal vary considerably depending on the climate they are grown in. In cooler valley regions, the Zinfandel grapes result in wines which hold strong flavors of tart and sweet fruits; raspberry, redcurrant and sweet cherry, held in a very smooth and silky liquid. Conversely, warmer regions result in more complex and spicy notes, including anise, pepper and hedgerow berries.
Of all the New World wine countries, perhaps the one which has demonstrated the most flair for producing high quality wines - using a combination of traditional and forward-thinking contemporary methods - has been the United States of America. For the past couple of centuries, the United States has set about transforming much of its suitable land into vast vineyards, capable of supporting a wide variety of world-class grape varietals which thrive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coastlines. Of course, we immediately think of sun-drenched California in regards to American wines, with its enormous vineyards responsible for the New World's finest examples of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines, but many other states have taken to viticulture in a big way, with impressive results. Oregon, Washington State and New York have all developed sophisticated and technologically advanced wine cultures of their own, and the output of U.S wineries is increasing each year as more and more people are converted to their produce.
California as a wine producing region has grown in size and importance considerably over the past couple of centuries, and today is the proud producer of more than ninety percent of the United States' wines. Indeed, if California was a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, with a vast range of vineyards covering almost half a million acres. The secret to California's success as a wine region has a lot to do with the high quality of its soils, and the fact that it has an extensive Pacific coastline which perfectly tempers the blazing sunshine it experiences all year round. The winds coming off the ocean cool the vines, and the natural valleys and mountainsides which make up most of the state's wine regions make for ideal areas in which to cultivate a variety of high quality grapes.