9.5.08

Convincing surprise by an Californian Oldie: Newton Winery Chardonnay Unfiltered 1995

The Newton Chardonnay was for a 13 year old wine rather surprising. It still showed a lot of vitality. It was massivly concentrated, very buttery and overwhelmingly nutty. Certainly a lot of vanilla-oak aromas were very present. I guess I wouldn’t have liked this one some years ago, but after such a long ageing period the strong vanilla taste showed some enjoyable elegance. Very strong apricot was another main flavour of this extraordinary stuff. The colour was dark yellow and the nose was clearly dominated by citronate scents. The only problem I had was its very high alcohol (14,7) percentage, which was obviously detectable. After all it was a very enjoyable, complex and strong Chardonnay.