I was walking through the local LCBO and Neils Wandler from Pondview was sampling Pondview’s wine so I gave this one a try. I liked it so much I bought three bottles. Golden in color with a nice albeit mild chard nose. On the mid pallet the wine displays some lovely chard fruit along with some nice vanilla notes. Slightly creamy in texture. Medium in length with some firm acidity on the finish. Not too much to be called bitter, just enough to add some character. This is an excellent California style chard and probably one of the best Chards coming out of Ontario that I have tasted to date, even ones costing a whole lot more. Hats off to Pondview. I would give it an 89-90. Yumm. We paired it with pan fried sea scallops and it went perfectly. Grab a bottle or 3 if you can while you can.
From the winery’s web site:
This is a Chardonnay we’re very proud of. It’s our first wine that has won a medal in France. It won a bronze medal at the Chardonnay du Monde international Chardonnay competition in France. Out of 872 Chardonnays from 42 countries, we were the only winery from Ontario to win anything. It was fermented and aged in French, American and Hungarian barrels for 11 months. This full bodied wine has sweet aromas of ripe pineapple, pink grapefruit with a hint of butterscotch. The palate is fresh with green apples and citrus with a long soft finish of vanilla cream.
From Neils:
Awards
2013 Chardonnay du Monde – Bronze
2013 Intervin – Bronze
2013 National Wine Awards of Canada – Bronze
Out of 872 Chardonnays from 42 countries, PondView Estate Winery was the only Ontario winery to win anything at Chardonnay du Monde.
From the LCBO web site:
Pondview Bella Terra Chardonnay 2011 — VINTAGES#: 347922
Spent nine months in 80% French oak … On the nose you’re going to get some buttery, baked apple and vanilla cream notes. On the palate it’s got peach and some butter-poached pear, a little tropical fruit; you’re also going to find mid-palate some vanilla and butterscotch, which is really lovely … On the finish there’s a kind of bitterness – call it the acidity, call it some sort of citrus … [that] balances out all those rich barrel notes and that rich fruitiness … Score – 89. (Michael Pinkus, OntarioWineReview Video, July 19, 2013) $24.95
