SUPERIOR WINE ALERT:

Today’s selection from Marimar Estate Winery is a delicious, easy-drinking, no-oak Chardonnay that hails from the Russian River Valley region. If you love approachable, friendly, balanced chardonnay, take a good look at today’s special offering.

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Mission Codename: Galleon de Don Miguel

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Send Agent Red back to Marimar Estate Winery, a new Operative favorite, to acquire their delicious, no-oak, stainless steel fermented, Don Miguel Vineyard “Acero” Chardonnay.

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Marimar Estate

Wine Subject: 2009 Don Miguel Vineyard – “Acero” Chardonnay – Russian River Valley

Winemaker: Marimar Torres

Backgrounder: Chardonnay is arguably the greatest of all white grape varietals, showing its influence in the legendary sparkling wines of Champagne, the great whites of Burgundy and of course its expression as ‘the’ white wine of California. Chardonnay represents over 50% of the planted white grapes in California with nearly 100,000 acres planted. With such a great number of wines made from this grape, it stands to reason that finding wines of great quality would be hard, but look no further. In this wine, we have found perhaps the ideal expression of the California Chardonnay.

The Russian River Valley AVA was officially designated in 1983, but many of the wines in the region used the designation as early as the 1970s (early in California’s wine history) with the many of the vines having been first planted in the early 1900s. The Green Valley sub-appellation, where today’s wine is carefully grown, is ideally suited to Chardonnay. Read Agent Red’s mission report and tasting notes below for the full intel on this exciting wine.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Lightest golden straw from heart to edge, this wine leave behind tall, branching legs that meander downward from high up on the glass wall.

Smell – Bright and light, with fresh with soft, sweet citrus, green apple, Asian pear and soft white flower. As the wine warms slightly (let it!), it really opens up and reveals aromas of soft pineapple, half-dried hay, honey and a hint of white spice.

Feel – Light-weight and cool, up front, with a soft and supple roundness at the mid-palate. Bright and fresh, with a soft acidity that telegraphs bright fruit flavors out to the corners of the palate.

Taste – Delicious and fresh with citrus, apple, pear and tropical notes. Flavors are sweet, light and authentic, reminding us of the actual fruits that we are tasting in this wine. Again, allow the wine to warm a bit and you will be rewarded with better, fuller and more realistic fruit flavors. As the wine approached something a little cooler than room-temperature, we detected hints of vanilla, honeysuckle, soft slate and a hint of creamed honey.

Finish – Long, bright and sweet, flavors are driven to the far reaches of the palate before they fade off, slowly. As the fruit fade, a soft slate minerality remains.

Conclusion – The 2009 Don Miguel Vineyard ‘Acero’ Chardonnay is a sweet, elegant, soft, approachable – fun wine. It is so easy to drink that we found ourselves refilling our glasses frequently. Fruit, on the nose as on the palate, are authentic, delivering aromas and flavors that were very similar to the actual fruits that we were reminded of as we sniffed and sipped. Today’s wine is a perfect summertime sipper that won’t overpower the palate with oak or heavy handed fruit. Instead, this wine is elegant, fun and easy to keep on sipping and sipping and sipping…

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The approximate location of the Marimar Estatee can be seen in this satellite photo.