Big Table Farm Willamette Valley Chardonnay 2015
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Sourced from the same 6 Willamette valley vineyards as 2014, barrel fermented in French oak (about 10% new) with yeast that blew in the door. We bottled after 11 months of aging without filtration or fining. We think this wine will steal your heart, it has a special place in ours.
The art on the labels is drawn by Clare and is unique to each vintage. The labels themselves are made by hand using a letterpress and thick printmaking paper. After each label is applied by hand, each bottle is carefully wraped in tissue to preserve the letterpress paper's texture and beauty. There is a product code on the bottom of each bottle so you don’t have to unwrap them to identify the wines.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A super vintage for this wine, it opens with compelling roasty-toasty aromatics, derived from barrel fermentation in 10% new oak. Those aromas straddle flavors of citrus and apple, and deliver a wine with cut and polish. It's a stellar example of the emerging high-quality style of the top Oregon Chardonnays.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Distinctive and zesty, with pear and spicy lees aromas and vibrant Meyer lemon and fresh fig flavors. Drink now through 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chardonnay delivers notes of ripe peaches, apple pie and guava with hints of toasted almonds, brioche and butterscotch. Medium-bodied with a pleasant suggestion of oiliness to the texture, it has a refreshing line of acid and a long finish with some spiciness coming through.
Other Vintages
2016-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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Wine
Spectator
The duo behind Big Table Farm are winemaker Brian Marcy and artist/farmer Clare Carver. In 2006 the moved to Oregon from Napa, where Brian had been making wine for ten years, and bought property in the Willamette Valley (about an hour outside of Portland).
This Oregon adventure is inspired by their desire to grow grapes, make wine, and to have the space for all of Clare's animals and Brian's wacky projects. The farm and winery are named after the goal to provide a gracious and welcoming table for themselves and friends, with a cornucopia of hand-crafted food and wine.
And now, almost ten years after Brian and Clare took the leap, they have developed this land into a working farm and built a barn and winery. They both feel lucky to live there and are both still in awe and deeply grateful for the chance to build this dream and share it with you!
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.