2007 Badge Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands
This pale straw colored seemingly oak-free chardonnay is overcoming its former austerity (of about a year ago) and offering a more balanced wine with delicate notes of lemon, green apple and oyster shell. Not a lot of depth or complexity, but acid-driven and very refreshing. Would not deserve it's supposed $30 MSRP but it's very nice at the $10 I paid for a cool climate knockoff from a not-cool climate. Definitely more a food wine than a sipping wine, which is pretty rare among California chardonnays.
2006 Martin Ray Reserve Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Highlands
Very unusual nose that initially doesn't match what you taste in the wine: savory not fruity, and distinctly petrol-like. In a Chardonnay! And in a CALIFORNIA Chardonnay! This is possible?!? Big on the palate but again all on the savory side, not so much fruit as vegetable. Less apple, for instance, than baked acorn squash with a dollop of apple butter. A strong shale-like minerality gives it backbone and then on the finish there's that petrol again. Quite unlike any California Chardonnay I've ever had and yet I wouldn't have guessed it to be any other grape: very curious and interesting. Otto would LOVE this wine.
2006 Franciscan Cuvee Sauvage, Napa Valley
This is Franciscan's top of the line white that retails for $40 or so. Age has been good to it: it's sweet, soft and rich at the same time. Deep burnished gold color hints at the caramel and baked apple notes to come. Low acid, elegant and expensive-tasting, and the reverse of the Badge: a contemplative, seductive chardonnay, better as a cocktail than a food wine.