Jeriko Estate Winery

This wine came from an unusual combination: Dijon clone 76 (a small-berry strain of Chardonnay developed in France), Daniel Fetzer’s certified organic vineyard, and winemaker Jeff Cichocki’s unabashed affection for the whole buttery-oaky Chardonnay thing. Normally I don’t go in for the third item that much, but I could not deny this wine when I had it in my mouth. It made me feel rich to sip it, and it made me feel virtuous to take off the wrapper and find out about the organic angle. As to clone 76, the small cluster and small berries increase the ratio of skins to juice, which is what you want when you’re going to barrel-ferment in new oak.

When the tasting flight was poured out, I could smell this wine from across the table - and I say that as praise . There was green apple, ripe pear and clover honey, plus all the buttery oak you could ask for. The wine is rich and viscous in your mouth, yet still very well knit. Despite the opulent, mouth-filling quality, it’s sweet without cloying and big without clomping around. Acid is on the light side, so don’t drink this for refreshment or to wash down appetizers: it’s a cocktail worth sipping on its own.

Reviewed August 23, 2007 by Thom Elkjer.