Saturday, March 11, 2023

Kendall Jackson Low Cal Chardonnay 2021


Since my mother is health conscious, she usually drinks low calorie white wines. While I was home for Spring Break, I decided to help myself to a few varieties she had chilling in the fridge. This particular wine is a Chardonnay from Kendall Jackson in Santa Rosa, California, vintage 2021. It is only 85 calories per 5 fluid ounces, and with an alcohol content of 9%.

From Kendall Jackson's own website, they describe their product as displaying flavors of grapefruit, pineapple, and creamy lemon meringue. As is typical of Kendall Jackson Chardonnays, it is aged in French oak barrels, which gives it notes of vanilla and hazelnut.

I was expecting a pretty oaky, buttery since that is what I am used to from this particular brand, but I did not get that at all. The chilled wine had a light yellow color, with an aroma of citrus, cider, and what I can only describe as sea spray. The taste itself was buttery on the back of the tongue with a slight oakiness, but far less than expected. It had a very pleasant mouthfeel, with a tart acidity that was not puckering. I got flavors of apples and other tree fruits, with an orangey citrus and a slight saltiness. I found the wine extremely easy to drink, being dry but also flavorful. I would contribute this to the relatively low residual sugar and alcohol for a typical Chardonnay, lending to its low calories. I would definitely drink a glass of this on a hot summer day; it was splendid.


Typical Chardonnay wines, according to page 96 of Wine Folly, have notes of yellow apple, starfruit, pineapple, vanilla, and butter. This was not an extremely tropical wine, but rather gave off flavors of cider with a bit of silkiness from barrel aging. It still came across as crisp and light.

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