The Desert Wine Guy - 2007 Huntington Cellars Chardonnay

   Today's review is on the 2007 Huntington Cellars Chadonnay. Nicolaus (Nicky) and Gaby Hahn founded their first vineyards in the late ‘70s in Monterey County. Started in 1988 Huntington Cellars is located (according to the wine bottle) in Grayton California however their website puts them in Napa Valley California. While the two areas are fairly close they are not the same. The winery on a map is actually located very close to Santa Rosa California instead. According to the Huntington Wines website the Hahn family of Nicolaus (Nicky) & Gaby Hahn (who own the Huntington label) live part-time in Northern Kenya , Africa and the other half of the time in the United States. They own "Mugie Ranch" in Kenya which has a school, farm and wildlife preserve. The Hahns say that the sales of the Huntington Cellars label benefit a Scholarship Fund for higher education for children in Kenya. Every bottle of Huntington Cellars wines also features an artists series of Gaby Hahns paintings.
   Now it's time for the review of this Chardonnay. Wherever the vineyard is truly located they have the right soil for grape growing. Let's start by breaking this down by subject here starting with visually since Huntington Cellars opted to stand out with a green bottle.
    I personally think that if you have a nice color to your white (especially) wine that you should be proud of it and show it off and not cover it up, after all wine is also judged on its color as one of it's pluses or negatives. You would (in my opinion) only cover something when you have something to hide. In this case there really is nothing to hide because there is no real color to show off so I guess we know why they chose a green bottle. A pour of the wine showed it to be a mostly clear in color wine with only a very slight hint of yellowish Gold. Color wise don't expect anything special because you will be disappointed in that category. Now on to the bouquet of this wine.
   Now lets get to the good part because this review does end up turning out O.k in the end depending on your needs. Let's move on to the Bouquet. This wine does have a nice bouquet that hits your nose with heavy oak initially after opening which is followed closely by Apricot & Nectarine. There was also a sense of a soft buttery type of bouquet to the wine. There was a hint in the bouquet of Apple as well as Peach also mixed however it remained deep in the wine yet not too deep where you could not detect in sufficient quantities. This is also one of those wines that when left to sit for a few must be swirled again to bring out the bouquet however once it comes back out it is nice but it does not stay long.
   Now we will move onto the taste of our Chardonnay. This is where the wine excels. While it is not a sweet wine by any means I would describe the overall taste of

this Chardonnay as "Bright Acidity". I think that when you read that description and you are familiar with Chardonnay you will understand what I mean. For those of you who have no experience with Chardonnays let me explain. The fruit of the wine has a moderately acidic taste and (of course) it is fruity at the same time. If done right this is a great combination and in this case it was done right. The buttery, Apricot/Nectarine taste is closely interconnected in this wine with one not standing out over the other. The remainder of the fruit, the apple and peach are in the finishing end of this wine. This wine is very pleasant to drink.
   In closing I would recommend one thing. I ended up coming to the conclusion that despite my unwillingness or dislike to chill a wine this Chardonnay does require it if you want the full taste. I also would let this wine sit open for a half an hour because it will tone down the oakey initial bouquet as well as taste in it. I thought the taste of the wine was decent and the bouquet nice for the short time it lasted. Bottom line here is this.This wine is kind of a mixed bag. To begin with there is nothing visually appealing about this wine. The bouquet while nice when swirled does not last long at all requiring the glass to constantly be swirled. The taste when left to sit open in the bottle is nice and I did enjoy it. If you are looking for just the taste which I guess is the biggest part of something you drink, then it will be good. If on the other hand you are looking for the complete package then you should look somewhere else.


                                                                                                        The Desert Wine Guy