First of all note the wide price range. The suggested retail for Rodney Strong Chardonnay is $15. I have never seen it for $15. It is usually deeply discounted and you can often find it for $10 or less. So it is not squeaking in under our price cap.
I struggled a bit in rating this wine. This is definitely an example of personal palate. My good friend Pat would probably LOVE this wine. I personally did not care for it although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it. It is a matter of style, specifically wood.
70% of grapes for the 2008 Rodney Strong Chardonnay were barrel fermented for 5 months so you cannot ignore the oak. The Wine Witch is not completely anti-wood. It is just when that much wine sits on oak for that long a resinous quality is imparted which I do not particularly care for.
This wine is a deep gold with a lot of legs. There is a fairly strong vanilla note in the nose. There are the expected apples and pears you normally find in a Chardonnay. As stated earlier this is a big, oaky Chardonnay with an underlying resin note. Yes, it is toasty, but I did not get buttery. I also feel compelled to tell you that this is not what I call “cheap tricks with wood” or the heavy use of oak to hide bad wine making. It is a good wine in a very oaky style.
So, if this is your kind of wine, ignore my rating and go out and buy a bottle of the 2008 Rodney Strong Chardonnay and enjoy.
Related posts:
Posted in 
