2008 Spirithouse Chardonnay
Oregon Chardonnay
Knudsen Vineyards
Dundee Hills AVA, Willamette Valley, Oregon
750ml bottles
2008 Spirithouse Chardonnay Tasting Notes
This wine opens with a note of warm peach cobbler with a dollop of melting vanilla ice cream on top accompanied by cool melon and crisp Bartlett pear with hints of oak spice to tie it all together. That sounds like a mouthful and that is exactly what this wine is. The wine hits the palate in a wash of honeydew and canary melon with an accented flinty minerality and a delicate smoky character followed by a creamy mid-palate with lemon poppyseed cake notes and an allspice-and-clove spiced elegant finish highlighting the deft use of French Oak. The blend highlights the Knudsen Vineyard’s richness, complexity, and refinement in its Chardonnay while adding 10% Lone Star Vineyard Chardonnay to enhance the mineral aspect of the wine. This is the very limited selection of Argyle’s best Chardonnay barrels of a great vintage in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Wine Scores and Reviews for 2008 Spirithouse Chardonnay
- 2006: Wine Advocate 93 "The 2006 Chardonnay Spirithouse is sold only at the winery tasting room, but it is worth a detour if you are in the neighborhood. It offers up a superb bouquet of wood smoke, mineral, baking spice, butterscotch, and other tropical nuances. Elegant on the palate with superb depth and concentration, this richly fruited effort owes more to Burgundy than Sonoma. It will provide pleasure for another 6 years. -JM"
- 2006: Wine Spectator 91 "Smooth in texture, with a bright, tangy lime and star fruit edge to the pear and pineapple flavors, picking up creamy, spicy overtones as the finish lingers. Drink now through 2012. 300 cases made. -HS"
- 2000: Wine Spectator 90 "Smooth in texture, spicy in flavor, with oak prevalent but lots of pear, dried apple and quince flavors, finishing round and generous. Drink now. 431 cases made. -HS"
