Dark Horse Vineyard Chardonnay 2018

Deborah Podurgiel WSET IV Candidate rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

Dark Horse Winery and Vineyard Chardonnay 2018 is full-on fragrant with guava, mango, dulce leche and toasted oak aromas on the nose. Dry with bright apple, tropical fruit, tutti-frutti, Meyer’s lemon, coconut, vanilla, toasty oak spice flavours, buttery silky long on the palate and altogether well-integrated.

The vineyard is blessed with a southeast exposure on the Golden Mile Bench and sits on 23 acres of alluvial fan, rounded pebbly rocks that go deep. Winemaker, Derek Kontkaren knows first-hand that the grape vines need to work hard here. “Putting in a vine post, you need to go 10 feet down to ensure the post is secure.”

Grapes are sourced from the vineyard’s three blocs of Chardonnay and are hand-harvested. Fermentation takes place in 20% new French oak barrels with partial malo giving the wine finesse and a silky mouthfeel, then poured into American oak barrels to lend their coconut and spicy flavours to the wine and returned to French oak barrels to finish and refine the flavours in wine. The wine is aged sur lie for 11 months.

Delicious and very approachable now, this Chard could easily cellar for five years. It would be very interesting to see how it evolves! Tasted March 2020. Paired with roast Cornish game hens.