2002 Wente Sauvignon Blanc

[wondersofwine]

Livermore Valley, CA
13% alcohol
Citrus (white grapefruit primarily, some lemon) nose
Less pleasing taste--harsh, slightly bitter (oak or wood chips used?)
Mellowed a little after a couple days in the refrigerator, providing grassy lemony flavors but for California S. B. I prefer St. Supery (best so far) or Honig

[Innkeeper]

Only things worse than oaky Chardonnay are oaky SB and Viognier.

[Kcwhippet]

That's really too bad about Wente. They started with cuttings from Ch. D'Yquem which were widely planted in Livermore Valley. Quite a bit of the plantings around CA were taken from what's now called the Wente clone. Sounds like they're going against the fresh clean wine they made a while back, and are going to the big oak style. Too bad.