For thoughts on Chateau Ste Michelle’s uniqueness and recent evolution, consult my extensive April, 2013 text designed to introduce recent tasting notes.Ste. Michelle’s 2010 Chardonnay Canoe Ridge Estate is fermented 30% in new barriques and around an equal share of it fermented spontaneously. As with the comparable basic bottling, around 15% of the barrels failed to go through malo. (Until recently, though, this bottling consisted entirely of barrels than had completed malo.) Apple, pineapple, and candied lime offer a juicy fundament, and accents of vanilla and butterscotch, while obvious, prove restrained and complimentary. In the finish a slight sense of sweet-sour tension is set up with hints of green apple skin, but many tasters will surely find that pleasantly invigorating. I’m surprised how firm this feels, though, considering nine months in barrel with a regimen allegedly even more lees friendly than that for their regular bottling. (And here there would only be 800 rather than 26,000 barrels to potentially stir ;- ) I imagine this might be worth following for several years. (The effects of malo-lactic were more obvious in the corresponding 2009 and it harbored more bitterness and less juiciness.) Tel. (425) 488-1133