Les Cretes, Chardonnay, Valle d'Aosta

From the Les Crêtes vineyard in d'Aymavilles and the Frissonnière vineyard in Saint Christophe, 600-850m above sea level, north-eastern exposure, moraine and sand soils, direct press, cool fermentation (18C), 1-2 months maturation on the lees with regular batônnage. A resolutely modern style, with clean and ripe, even jewelly, fruit, hints of yeast and a nice "gras" from the élévage, perfect balance between acidity and fruit on the palate, considerable weight (14.5% ABV) and a hint of back-end heat, very good …

Unfortunately, this bottle has been infected with brett. That said, even looking past that, this is absolutely awful. The wine is a deep gold in color and the nose is overly vegetal, making for a very poorly balanced wine. This is a screw top and in spite of that fact, it somehow still tastes corked. The wine is off dry, with medium acidity, and a medium, unpleasant finish. overall, one of the worst white wines I've ever encountered. Down the …

Very high acid chard that showed better a little warmer and after opening up, definitly a "food wine" but in this case a way to make sense of the extreme astringency. The other aosta varietals work a but better but this is still my first chard from there.