Corey Creek Vineyards

Over the past couple of years, Corey Creek Vineyards has moved from being its own entity to serving as the white wine label for Bedell Cellars, with the notable exceptions of a rose and cabernet franc under the Corey Creek label. Both are owned by New Line Cinema co-CEO Michael Lynne and all of the wines are made at Bedell Cellars' state-of-the-art winery facility.

Corey Creek still has its own tasting room, which is much more rustic than that Bedell's, but if you pay for a tasting at one, you get a free tasting at the other.

This chardonnay, one of two produced under the Corey Creek label, was fermented and aged in 100% French oak barrels. Barrel aging was done for ten months with 75% malolactic fermentation allowed to take place.

In the glass, this wine is a medium, golden-straw color with good clarity. The nose is somewhat nutty with significant toasty oak character, butter and faint apple aromas behind the oak.

Full bodied, but not flabby because of faint acidity, oak-influenced flavors of honey and buttered popcorn dominate what fruit there is, mostly lemon with hints of apple.

Good, but not great and at $25, there are probably better options, though another year or two of bottle age may be just what this wine needs.

Reviewed March 1, 2006 by Lenn Thompson.