El Viejo del Valle

 I am not much of a Chardonnay drinker. My mother's drink of choice growing up was always dry, oaky, chilled Chardonnay and I never cared for it. So when I was tasked with finding a Chardonnay for my friends and I, I asked the clerk at Vintage Cellar for something that was not dry or oaky. They pointed me in the direction of El Viejo del Valle (The Old Man from the Valley). It was their 2019 vintage from Valle de Maule in Chile.

According to reviews from many wine drinkers, this wine has been known to have tasting notes of pear, apple, citrus, saline, minerals, and smoke. It had a 13% ABV and only cost me $7. It had a medium straw color in the glass.

Upon opening and smelling, my nose was dominated by the alcohol scent. It was the only aroma I could distinguish, it was just so strong. I did detect notes of pear on my first sip of the wine, but the acidity of it was so high that it took a few minutes to catch the subtle taste of honeysuckle and yellow apple. It was definitely not oaky, which in hindsight I wish it would have been. It was very light, crisp, and acidic and reminded me of the taste of those novelty jelly beans based off the Harry Potter books (in particular the vomit flavored jelly bean). Let's just say I was not a fan of this one. It was rather dry and had some light tannins.

According to page 96 of Wine Folly, Chardonnay grapes usually have tasting notes of yellow apple, starfruit, pineapple, vanilla, and butter. Since this style of Chardonnay was definitely not aged, it did not resemble anything like butter or vanilla. Yellow apple became more apparent throughout the wine tasting process, and perhaps I could see the presence of pineapple due to the acidity. We served this wine cold as advised to us by the book.