For a flavor boost, check out this oaky, nutty chardonnay
This wine tastes as if a classic German apple cake had been slathered German chocolate cake frosting — rich in flavors of vanilla and brown sugar, coconut, and pecans.
Chardonnay is the single most popular wine grape on earth. This grape’s great strength is its uncanny ability to produce wines with a pleasingly rich texture on the palate at almost any degree of ripeness, from cold-climate sparkling blanc de blancs to warm-climate, barrel-aged white wines. On the other hand, chardonnay’s great weakness is in its flavor, or relative lack thereof, which explains why it is so often boosted with other flavors in the winemaking process.
It’s true that wine drinkers often have clear flavor associations with chardonnay wines, typically of desserts like crème brûlée or pecan pie. However, these tastes derive more from the use of toasted oak at the winery than from the chardonnay grape itself. Wooden barrels have been used for winemaking for centuries and were traditionally made of oak. Heating oak over flame toasts the wood in a way that imparts distinctive flavors to wines stored inside. These are the same flavors of vanilla and caramel, roasted nuts and dessert spices, that similarly provide appeal to cask-aged spirits like bourbon or cognac.
Nowadays, the finest chardonnay wines are still fermented and aged in barrels because oak provides a desirable flavor infusion to this relatively neutral-tasting grape. However, this process is expensive and time-consuming, so vintners looking to keep their wines affordable will often ferment and age their chardonnay in stainless steel, but steep the wine with toasted oak chips to achieve the desired degree of oaky flavor. That’s how this cheeky Australian chardonnay gets its bold wallop of American oak flavor. The result is a wine that tastes as if a classic German apple cake had been slathered with the frosting associated with German chocolate cake, a thick confection made with vanilla and brown sugar, coconut and pecans.
19 Crimes ‘Hard Chard’ Chardonnay
$9.99, 16% alcohol
PLCB Item #2286. Sale price through 10/31 — regularly $12.99
Also available at:
Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont; $8.99, totalwine.com
Super Buy Rite in West Deptford and Williamstown;$8.99, westdeptfordbuyrite.com, williamstownbuyrite.com
Wine Warehouse in Clementon, Voorhees, Mantua, and Sicklerville; $8.99, winewarehousenj.com