White Salmon Vineyard Chardonnay - 94pts Wine Enthusiast

By: Peter Brehm


During a recent visit to Foundry Winery, Ali and Squire revealed that both Chards will be receiving nice reviews from Paul Gregutt in the April Wine Enthusiast, so there’s a little more urgency than I had originally thought. These are micro-production, too: 77 cases of the stainless and 132 cases of the oaked. I special-ordered the wines across the mountains, and to the best of my knowledge, this is the first appearance of these wines in the Seattle market (perhaps first and only?).

What’s extra-cool about these wines is that they were picked from the same vineyard on the same day and treated the same, except: one was matured in stainless steel, the other in oak. While the temptation may be strong to go with the higher-scored wine, there’s a real educational opportunity in trying these two side-by-side. It’s a chance to cast off the shackles of wine fashion and decide for your own palate how you feel about the influence of oak on Chardonnay.

2011 Foundry Vineyards Chardonnay Stainless

Both of these wines come from White Salmon Vineyard, a small site in the Columbia Gorge. I have no idea why, but there is a small amount of Fernao Pires planted in this vineyard, and Ali co-fermented it (7% of the blend) with both Chardonnays (note: Foundry is calling this obscure Portuguese varietal by one of its many synonyms, Maria Gomes). Having never tasted Fernao Pires on its own, I can’t speak to its impact on these wines. All I can say is that they’re both awfully good. This stainless version is all about the fruit: layers of tree fruit, stone fruit, and some tropical nuance, all carried along by the electric acid from a cool vintage in a cool region (both wines clock in at 12.6% alc; typical for Chablis, less so for Washington).

Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 94pts.”

2011 Foundry Vineyards Chardonnay Oak

Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 92pts.”

Note: this also contains 7% Fernao Pires. I was a bit more evenly split between the two than PaulG. I thought the oak added some lovely nuance of honeysuckle and smoke to that core of vibrant fruit. I also found this bottling to have a more overt leesy character, a sultry breadiness that adds a savory, almost earthy note to the fruit chorus. For me, you drink the stainless bottling for its fruit purity, the oaked for its balanced complexity. There is a time and a place for both, to be sure.  Please limit order requests to 6 bottles of Stainless and 12 bottles of Oak, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wines should arrive in about a week, at which point they will be available for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.