Wine Asylum

Re: Chardonnays tend to get a little too mellow after only a couple of years aging IMO...

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In Reply to: Best chardonnay to buy today, and put away for a few years. posted by tntom on March 01, 2004 at 04:57:11:

but the bigger ones - more oak, etc. - age better, if that's the style you like. Check the Wine Spectator recommendations.
Regards,
Mike

Re: Chardonnays tend to get a little too mellow after only a couple of years aging IMO... - zintintin 18:57:30 07/27/04 (0)
I disagree. It seems to me that the big oaky vanilla monsters are the soft ones that don't age. A Stony Hill (mentioned in the thread) which is made with a light hand on the oak and no malolactic fermentation is a good ager. As is the similarly vinted Trefethen. And a Grgich Hills needs at least four years to come into its own. Some of the oak/tannin can preserve a chardonnay but for what I've tasted you tend to get a slightly astringent apple juice (minus the fruitiness) when you put away most CA chards for more than three years. Whites with firm acid, rather than lots of new oak, are better agers in my opinion.
FWIW my favorite old whites include a '77 Joseph Phelps Chardonnay, consumed in about '88, and an '80 Dom Perignon opened in '95.

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