2015 Chardonnay Sanct Valentin St Michael Eppan Review And Tasting Notes
The 2015 Chardonnay Sanct Valentin made by the St Michael Eppan winery is an icon of South Tyrolean wine, demonstrating that social wineries can easily produce great wines if well managed. Of course, this Chardonnay is a reserve, born only from the best grapes that the members collect, but it is also a very ambitious wine. We can say that this Chardonnay has been the touchstone of all white wine producers for years.
But what is so special about this Chardonnay Sanct Valentin 2015?
Quite simply, it is a wine made without compromise: the quality of the grapes is indisputable, but then also the processing is extreme, all vinified in wood to enhance the buttery, creamy, and more marked notes of the Chardonnay.
One might immediately object that the wine is too spicy and opens super smoky.
The typical sapidity of Alto Adige wines is thus mortified, even the expressive naturalness of this wine.
A noble grape such as Chardonnay is forced into a very aesthetic bond.
As is valid on any excellent Chardonnay that ages in barrique and aspires to a long life, but if you give it time in your cellar to dispose of all this woody impetus, you will have an excellent wine.
But who still buys wines today and then puts them in the cellar?
It is a wine still very unbalanced on the spicy-woody front. The vanilla tones are almost overwhelming, but the wine’s quality and thickness are there and are already palpable, especially structure and freshness remarkable.
The alcohol content is 14 degrees, not exactly light. Over time it will evolve and transform all this intensity, not very centered at the moment, into a more melodic symphony.
Mind you, it’s not that it’s a lousy wine now, just that it lacks that spontaneity and aromatic cleanliness, but as mentioned, it is a full-bodied and full-bodied wine that needs years to mature.
The bouquet
Enveloping nose with lots of tropical fruit, apples, acacia, and chalk swimming in a sea of vanilla and aromatic herbs.
The aromatic profile is plump and smoky, but not for this lacking in focus and intensity. The floral echoes are delicate with hints of roses, the spices are all there from the first to the last, the fruit is still very sharp, and the butter acts as a binder for the apple pie. Very sumptuous and rich.
The flavor
It is savory, fresh, and very structured, with discreet roundness and many flavors of fruit and vanilla in the mouth. The thickness and the pulp are juicy, but we are still far from a credible aromatic development. The 2015 vintage is young and still convulsive, prey to an overbearing wood: it will be cleaner in 3-4 years. Between 6-7, we will see its flowering.
Price
18-20 euros, an acceptable price.