Not unlike a lot of wine geeks, I’m not a big fan of chardonnay. Although I try to be impartial with all reviews and judge a wine on how good it is for its style, I’m admittedly a little hard on chardonnay. I just often find it to be out of balance, clumsy and not enjoyable. And so, when I find a chardonnay that wows me that says something good about that wine. And this is one of those times.
Honestly, I think chardonnay gets a bad rap. It’s grown virtually everywhere that wine is produced and some of those places just aren’t good regions for chardonnay. OK… maybe many of those regions aren’t good for chardonnay.
The Santa Ema reserve chardonnay comes from the Casablanca Valley in Chile. This is a cool climate region that turns out some incredible wines. And cool climate chardonnay tends to be the chardonnay that rocks. Hence, this chardonnay rocks.
The nose is quite powerful, oozing with honey, banana, butterscotch and tropical fruit aromas. The palate has super bright acidity that makes the fruit flavors sing. It offers well-balanced pineapple, apple and citrus flavors. The finish is long and pleasant with citrus, honey and mineral flavors. Overall, this wine is delicious.
Wine: Santa Ema Reserve Chardonnay
Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 88
Price: $13.00
Find Santa Ema Reserve Chardonnay with Snooth
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.