A wine that tastes like great apple pie

Harken Chardonnay California

$15.69 13.5% alcohol

PLCB Item #47972

Sale price through 12/31 – regularly $18.69

Just as a chef uses spices to control the taste of a dish, winemakers adjust the flavor and texture of their wines by using oak barrels. Using newer oak vessels for either fermentation or aging (or both) can add aromatic qualities that are hard to describe but that wine drinkers find desirable. New oak is what leads some wines to be described as tasting “oaky,” as if a splash of cognac or bourbon has been added. However, barrel use also softens a wine whether or not the barrels are new, much as slow-cooking renders a tough cut of meat more tender.

Within the rarified world of wine barrels, French oak is the wood of choice for prestige wines and comes with a hefty price tag to match. Not only do French barrels have a track record of excellence that stretches back for centuries, but the tight regulations around their forestry and cooperage act as quality guarantees. Generations of wine drinkers have also proven to prefer the subtle spice accents of French oak in practice when tasted blind next to the bolder and more overtly caramelized taste imparted by American oak barrels. American oak barrels are far cheaper and their flavor is not unpleasant—high in dessert-like coconut and vanilla notes—just a touch too brazen for many wine lovers. As a result, many wineries have tried to find a happy balance by blending some batches refined in pricy French oak with others aged in more affordable American oak.

Harken takes a different approach with its innovative “fusion barrels” where they alternate French and American staves in the same barrel in order to find a cost-efficient way to craft a rich, buttery chardonnay without breaking the bank. Their chardonnay is 100% barrel-fermented and aged a further 8 months in the same fusion barrels, each hand-stirred every two weeks. The result is a wine that tastes like a great apple pie, complete with dabs of butter and lacings of cinnamon under the crust and a double scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.