Hayman & Hill Russian River Valley Reserve Chardonnay '06
The Nitty Gritty:
- Vintage: 2006
- Varietal: Chardonnay
- Winery: Hayman & Hill
- Region: Sonoma
- Country: United States
- Price: About $12
- Rating: 84/100
- Tags: Chardonnay
I didn’t love this wine when I first tasted it. I had grabbed the bottle off the “unmentionables” shelf (the Merlot/Chardonnay section) because I generally like wines from Russian River Valley. Smart decision-making, right?
Not so much. I made a couple of mistakes with this wine: 1)Skimming the label, 2)Over-chilling it, and 3)Having completely inaccurate expectations.
What I expected was what I’ve known of most California Chardonnays: a golden-hued, robust, juicy, buttery, toasty, oaky, heavy wine to match the risotto we were cooking.
What I got: A pale, straw-colored wine, much like a Sauvignon Blanc or a French white. Interesting. Upon the first sip, it seemed to pack a similarly tart punch, but then tasted watery. I instantly wrote it off as a characterless wine.
Yet it kept going, long after I swallowed. Somehow, this wine managed to last. I kept tasting vanilla, fruit, vanilla, oak, vanilla. More impressed.
As the wine warmed, the flavor intensified. This really drove home the truism that one shouldn’t over-chill more complex whites, as the flavor is lost if your palate is shocked with a refreshing but really cold wine.
Additionally, if I had read the label, I would have realized that the wine was not, in fact, 100% Chardonnay, but 93% Chardonnay and 7% Viognier, which would have made a huge difference in my initial perception. Viognier by itself tastes somewhat like a cantaloupe, and that flavor proved confusing as I sipped what I thought was a pure Chardonnay.
Overall, I was pleased, but I probably would have liked it a lot more if I’d made the effort to know what I was getting into when I opened the bottle. Take this as a lesson, and let the lessons learned be part of the charm of the long journey of the wine nerd.
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By Lauren McNally
Lauren B. McNally is a communications consultant in Washington, D.C., who spends most of her free time exploring culinary and oenological pursuits with friends. She hails from Maine and graduated from Bowdoin College, completing additional study at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.(where she found the dining hall cuisine rather offensive and repulsive, as opposed to that of the top-ranked Bowdoin Dining Service). Her palate is ever-evolving but she includes California Zinfandels, Cotes du Rhone, and white wines from Burgundy and the Loire Valley among her current favorites. Her least favorite wine-related phrase: “I don’t like _.” Lauren also enjoys cooking Italian and French cuisine, and has an unnatural obsession with Gorgonzola and pancetta.
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