by David Raccah » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:19 am
Simple shabbos, so I thought I would whip out a bottle I had heard mixed reviews about. Unfortunately, I side on the slightly negative side. I love wines with character, complexity, a sense of place, and balance among fruit, body and acidity. Preferably, nothing in extremes - other than tannin and weight. This wine though, was all over the place - just my 2 cents...
Yarden Katzrin Chardonnay 2003 - Score B+
This was a nice wine - just not what I was hoping for. I love fruity yet complex white wines. Wines with a body and fruit that play off each other and have enough acidity to keep the fruit in check. In the end, this one was just being overpowered by the oak. Way too much of it. There was still fruit, but the oak and the over the top acidity was not in balance - it felt all over the place.
The nose on this golden colored wine had notes of peach and nectarine along with a huge dollop of oak. The mouth on this medium+ bodied wine starts off with a nice hit of peach, green apple, and nectarine. The middle hits you with what I can only describe as sour apple candy - without the sugar - crazy acidity. The finish is strong with oak and a hint of nuts. However, the acidity is almost puckering and just throws everything off balance. Really quite a shame. The more I read about wine makers creating soups of concoctions (adding tannin, acidity, fining agents, etc), I wonder if there was a healthy dose of ph added to this wine during or after fermentation. The ph is so off and is not integrated with the wine at all. Just a thought.