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Wine Recommendation
Laughing Stock Vineyards
2005 Chardonnay(Okanagan Valley)
This wine was a challenge and, ultimately, a pleasure to review. The issue is that the winemaker was bold in the use of oak, aging the wine for 10 months on the lees in French oak – half new, half used. On the initial pass, the fruit and the oak flavours still seem a bit disjointed. It is nothing that three or four months of cellaring won’t resolve. This is a complex Burgundian-style wine.
The aroma begins with a whiff of sweet creamed corn (typical in a young Chardonnay that has gone through malolactic fermentation). The aromas evolve to show citrus, ripe pineapple and oak notes. On the palate, there are flavours of tangerine and sweet butter, with a rich, creamy texture. The wine is not shy on ripeness, with a stated alcohol of 13.6%. All the elements are here for a wine that will develop further richness and complexity if you are patient. Unfortunately, only 140 cases were made. 90 points.
Reviewed July 9, 2006 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Laughing Stock Vineyards
The Wine
Winery: Laughing Stock Vineyards |
The Reviewer
John Schreiner
John Schreiner has been covering the wines of British Columbia for the past 30 years and has written 10 books on the wines of Canada and BC. He has judged at major competitions and is currently a panel member for the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Excellence in Wine. Both as a judge and as a wine critic, he approaches each wine not to find fault, but to find excellence. That he now finds the latter more often than the former testifies to the dramatic improvement shown by BC winemaking in the past decade. |