The Wines of Warwick Valley Winery and Distillery ~ Chardonnay

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

I don’t do well with crowds in the best of times, and the end of a long day with three wineries already under my belt does not make for the best of circumstances.  So I opted not to try to navigate my way through the throngs of the people at the bar that afternoon and instead take a chance and bring home several bottles to explore at my leisure.

The first of the three Warwick Valley wines I chose that afternoon was the Chardonnay.  The color is a beautiful, sunny yellow – one of the darker yellows I’ve seen here in the Northeast and more reminiscent of the golden yellow Chardonnays of the west coast than the paler yellow/straw-colored Chardonnays of New England.

The nose is dusky and oaky with light notes of green pepper.  In the mouth, the wine was very smooth, with no really strong notes on the front.  However, the wine opens up a bit in the mouth and notes of green pepper pull through in the back of the mouth.  There’s a nice acid on the finish with just a hint of citrus that gives the wine a nice bite.  The oak adds a butteriness without being too soft and sweet.

I paired this with a grilled, blackened chicken breast and summer salad.  The wine worked beautifully with the meal, standing up to the pepperiness of the blackened seasoning.  The smooth butteriness helped “cool” the pepper on the chicken, while the pepper, in turn, brought out even more of the smoothness of the wine.   Very nice.

Tags: Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery

This entry was posted on September 21, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Chardonnay, Hudson Valley Wine Country, local wines, Marguerite Barrett, New York, Shawangunk Wine Trail, Win(e)ding Roads, wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.