Chardonnay

Last night in class we discussed our recent harvest and the on-going fermentations in the experimental winery. We then did a comprehensive tasting of 12 Chardonnay wines including 3 commercial wines, La Crema, Clos du Bois and Bogle. We analyzed wines that were unoaked, oaked or had malolactic fermentation. Some of the UNR wines did quite well in the tasting, particularly the Well-Watered 2008 that had been oaked and treated with malolactic fermentation. Another favorite was the Well-Watered 2009 Chardonnay with oak. Clearly some of the UNR wines were competitive if not better than the commercial wines. Chardonnay appears to be a good grape to grow in the Northern Nevada region.