Screw Kappa Napa Chardonnay 2004

After the pleasant experience with the SKN Cabernet and seeing a review in the Chronicle's web site, SFGate.COM, I thought I'd give the SKN Chardonnay a shot. Safeway carries this at about $10, a discount from the MSRP of $14.95.

I'm not a big Chard fan in general, but I've already said that if the need arises, I go with the flow. And last night's supper of linguine with prawns in a wine and butter sauce, dictated that I open a bottle of some sort of white wine. I can't add red wine to that sauce, now can I?

So out came the SKN. Several things about this wine struck me immediately. Almost no oak, and nice smells. The winemaker's note says "light toast of vanilla from French oak". He must have used primarily old barrels (which is cheaper since they have been used once before). Fruity and full without the big butter one finds in Chardonnay that is housed in vats with big chunks of burnt oak. I'd even go so far as to guess that with 20,500 cases made, (that's about a quarter million bottles!) it probably was made in steel vats with oak chunks also. Just less of them for better balance.

It did have a fairly acidic feel to the palate and at a ph of 3.62 this was in the mid acid range. The acidity was mitigated by the butter in the sauce so for me it was not a problem. It just stood out. Fatty foods pair well with acidic wines.

SFGate.com gave this wine 2 stars, and on their scale I would have to agree. As inexpensive Chardonnay goes, this was fine to drink and fine to incorporate in the sauce.