Lardy's Wine Tasting Notes
Dry Oaky White Wines
Lardy's Wine Tasting NotesDry Oaky White Wines
This is a category normally dominated by wines made from the Chardonnay grape, though you can find Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Seyval Blanc and others that fit well. (Please leave my Riesling alone!). Most of these wines - from all around the world - are made to taste like oak, and are usually too sweet and too alcholic to boot. Oak should not be used this heavily, except that many of the world's wine purchasers seem to equate oak content with quality (my generation, the boomers, seem to also want this "instant gratification" in many other facets of their lives).
Oak should be a "spice", bringing out the main flavours in the wine, not acting as the whole meal as is so often the case. (I like a little garlic, but rarely do I want to eat a few cloves for dinner.) But nicely integrated oak can bring out a sweet smokiness, a spicy, vanilla, buttery character in a wine - especially in a wine that has also undergone malolactic conversion. It can add tannic structure, enhance the tropical fruit flavours, add layers of complexity and interact with the acid and alcohol to create a "tension" in the wine. But there is a limit which is imposed by the amount of fruit in the grapes that were harvested. Beyond this, you enter the realm of Chateau Two by Four...
In general terms, dry oaky white wines lack fruit. Only the best will exhibit fruitiness through heavy oak. But these rare wines, almost always from very low-yielding vines, are among the best libations offered in this life.
www.littlefatwino.com