Windmill Estates Lodi Chardonnay
Wine: Windmill Estates Lodi Chardonnay.
Grape: Chardonnay
Region: Lodi, Northern California
Vintage: 2007
Price: $3.99
In the glass: Windmill Estates Chardonnay is a clean, bright golden-lemon color with a fine translucent core going out into a faint clearish rim definition with medium viscosity.
On the nose: This wine comes out with lovely floral notes over ripe buttery apples, almost like apple pie minus the cinnamon, then pineapple character, slight hints of wood, vanilla and toasted hazelnuts and a touch of minerality.
On the palate: It has an almost sweetish pineapple, Braeburn apple and citrus character right off the bat, but there is more depth and complexity than that, and the wine rounds out through the midpalate with softer, fleshier white fruit and apricot as well as nicely balanced acidity to keep the richness of the wine in check. The finish is lingering and pleasant with soft rounded notes of toast and lemon curd.
Odds and ends: Windmill Estates Chardonnay comes from the Michael David portfolio of wines. The operation is owned by the Phillips family, whose forefather Andrew Harshner homesteaded the 160 acres near the town of Lodi for the $10 fee back in 1860 and discovered that the land was great for grape cultivation. Six generations later, the land still is yielding great grapes for delicious wines. Normally, the Windmill Chardonnay should be $10, and at that price it is a highly recommended value Chardonnay from a superb area of California, but when I discovered that it is now selling for less than $4, I had to alert wine consumers. It is not only well-made and tasty, it is from the heralded 2007 vintage, meaning it is perfectly ripe and ready to drink, preferably with an oven-roasted piece of halibut and some sauteed snow peas. Chill it to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit before serving, and drink it now through 2012.
Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.
