2020 Brothers Miller, Chardonnay - Santa Barbara County

 

2020 Brothers Miller, Chardonnay - Santa Barbara County

  What is going on with winemakers doctoring up their Chardonnay with oak? If you want my thoughts on the matter (thanks for asking:), I think this whole oakey mess is due to winemakers who either simply don't know how to create a good Chardonnay or, they just jumped on the band wagon of the latest craze which a lot of younger Chardonnay wine drinkers are riding as well. That craze is to sort of remake what the wine varietal is really meant to be. I don' t know about you but I certainly want to taste much more in a Chardonnay then oak. I want to taste some minerality, some acidity and of course, a clean bit of fruit as well. It's sad how a wonderful and classy wine varietal can be so perverted into what today at times is unrecognizable. Thankfully not every country oaks their Chardonnay of course and . countries such as France (white Burgundy), Chile & New Zealand to name a few, aren't big into the doctoring of Chardonnay thankfully. Now, you might think that I am completely against placing Chardonnay or any wine in oak but this is not accurate as oak does have it's place in the making of wine at times. Where I do have an issue however is when oak overtakes everything else in the wine thereby making it unrecognizable. Now, I feel so much better you can't believe it :) Let's get into todays wine now.

   Today I will be taking a look at the 2020 Brothers Miller, Chardonnay - Santa Barbara County. Here again is another wine that I bought from the on-line wine club named Naked Wines and yes, I am a member and yes, I do pay $40 a month. For this particular wine, I paid $11.99 and its alcohol percentage comes in at a rather high 14.2% alcohol.
   Let's continue here by taking a look at the label on the bottle as we always do. This is a wine whose label benefits from being a white wine. I think the label is very unique and I love the fonts used as well as the coloring of the shading of the label. The label gives off a nice rustic note to it and I happen to think that is very appropriate for the varietal.
   Now we move onto the nose presentation of this wine. Putting it bluntly, what does the wine smell like. First up is a note of a bit of butteriness but just a bit. White Nectarine comes along on its heels but a clean and minerality edged White Nectarine. A nice it of pineapple is picked up as well here on the nose and while the bouquet does not leap out of the glass and attack you, it does present itself tropically and certainly adequately enough to have you believing the wine might indeed be slightly fruity yet hopefully not overdone in this area and, well put together.

The "Oak Monster"

   As far as the palate presentation goes now, what I am getting up right up front is a semi darkness to the wine that I don't care for. You might ask, what the heck is "semi darkness" Desert Wine Guy? Well, while I know that is a weird description, what I mean is that the initially taste of the wine comes across (actually dominates) with a note of if I didn't know better would say is .....oak. There is a big edge of this oakey type note to this wine and it throws the palate off from what's expected of a Chardonnay, especially a non oaked Chardonnay. There is definitely a White Nectarine that is tasted and it does on one hand bring some tropicalness to the wine but on the other hand, it adds to the dryness of the wine as well which is not good in this case. Another overbearing note here in this wine is one of minerality. Normally I wouldn't complain about minerality in a white wine but here it is a good bit overbearing in my opinion. Do these notes do the wine in? Well guys, between that oakey type note and that overbearing minerality and dryness, yes, they ruin the wine. Next up is an overpowering bit of spice which comes along and joins in with that oak type note  and minerality simply making matters worse. As a matter of fact, I am done with this wine guys, yes, it is that bad. I am not even going to stick around and try to taste the wine any further, this wine is not for my palate.

   Here is the bottom line guys. The wine is very palate offensive with bitterness, minerality, over the top dryness and once again, that oakey type note. To me all of these notes are extremely harsh and a palate turn off. It's weird but you can tell in a way that the wine wants to be good. The fruit is saying "wait, we are in here" but I just couldn't see it being allowed to happen because unfortunately it is dominated by the those other notes and I just can't get past them. The wine and I are headed towards the Kitchen sink because on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 85 sink cleaning points.

                                                                                                                                   The Desert Wine Guy

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