No Way Chardonnay & Farm Trivia

Don’t like Chardonnay wine? Maybe there’s a style that’ll appeal to you. Chad shares his story of exploring this widely produced wine. Plus, we’ll end with some Farm Trivia.

by Chad Steiner

When was the first time you had Chardonnay…? Can you remember what it tasted like? Was it heavier? Often times described as oaky or buttery? My first memory of Chardonnay was 23 years ago when I was working for Ste. Michelle (then called Stimson Lane on the production side). A group of friends from work and outside work got together to taste Chardonnay. We were determined to discover the difference between the “Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay” and the “Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay”. I do remember everyone having a preference of one vs. the other but nothing earth shattering. Fast forward to say 2005 through 2011 and I basically just avoided Chardonnay all together. “Oh, I don’t want something heavy and buttery!”. Then, one day it hit me, and at the time we were living in California. Why am I avoiding one of, if not the most produced white wines in the world? Varieties around as long as Chardonnay have stood the test of 100’s of years of consumers in France and elsewhere. Since we lived in California where wineries are plentiful, I embarked on an adventure of drinking and tasting Chardonnay.

All I can say is – what an amazing wine and what an amazing adventure Chardonnay opens the door to. This post is a bit of a twist from our prior blog on The Chardonnay Adventure. If you like crisp and bright, more like a simple white wine, maybe you go for stainless aged with no secondary fermentation. Or if you want a bit more complexity, maybe you find one that hasn’t gone through a secondary (malolactic) fermentation, neutral oak aging and maybe grown at a higher elevation. Then lastly, if you do prefer the heavier style – then you’d be looking for a barrel fermented, barrel aged Chardonnay that’s gone through its secondary fermentation. Or grab a bunch of them, line them up and have a tasting. See which ones you like and let that be your guide. But, as you hone your pallet – a pro tip I got from a world wine expert (Darrel Corti) – see if you can start to identify true “Varietal Character” of Chardonnay. This isn’t how Darrel said it to me, but his insights about varietal character sent me on a long journey to answer – “what the heck is varietal character”? Grab some friends and a variety of chardonnay bottles and have some fun seeing what style everyone prefers.

Farm Trivia

Question: How many stomachs does a sheep have?

Answer: Four

Question: How much does a bin of apples weigh?

Answer: it depends on the density of the apple, but typically between 800-900 lbs.

Question: How fast can a chicken run?

Answer: About 0.1 miles/hour faster than a human. Just try to catch one.

Question: What is the most produced white wine in the world?

Answer: Chardonnay.

Question: How many acres of wine grapes in the Lake Chelan Valley?

Answer: About 360 (there’s about 60,000 in WA State). Lake Chelan grown grapes and produced wines are unique and special.

Question: Why do we put nets on our grape vines?

Answer: To keep the birds from eating the grapes.

Question: Where did Chad and Jeana meet?

Answer: They met in high school in FFA (used to be called Future Farmers of America).

Question: How many acres is Chelan Valley Farms?

Answer: A little over 20 acres.

Question: How much precipitation comes to Manson?

Answer: About 14” per year.

Question: How much water does it take to grow grapes?

Answer: About 24” of water.

Question: How much water does it take to grow apples?

Answer: About 48” of water.

Question: Where does the irrigation water come from on Chelan Valley Farms?

Answer: Lake Chelan.

Thank you all so much for following along. And thank you for so much engagement on Carston’s blog post. We were so happy to see it be one of our highest opened blogs. Maybe we’ll have him join in the future. And, oh, by the way – it was all him, Dad only edited two technical words.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!