01/12/07 Rulo Chardonnay

Welcome to Vine to Wine! This is your host Linda Moran and as many of you know my new favorite wine is often the wine that is in my glass at the time. Today I want to tell you about an unlikely style of Chardonnay being made in Walla Walla Washington, by a very talented winemaker. During a birthday lunch with my special friend Edward, we asked him to select a wine that he either enjoys or wanted to try. He selected a wine from a winery named Rulo that is spelled R-U-L-O. It was a Chardonnay, which didn't thrill me, but hey  it wasn't my birthday. That is until I tasted the wine  then it felt like I had received a present. The wine was not a big gooey oaky butter bomb like so many Chardonnays these days. Instead, it was elegant and expressed truly lovely fruit. The restrained oak I came to find out was due to the use of only 40 percent new oak barrels with the remainder of the wine in one to two year old barrels. It was a designated vineyard wine, the Birchcreek Vineyard, a site that one might not expect to find great Chardonnay growing. The wine is silky and has an enticing level of acidity that seduced me into calling the winemaker, Kurt Schlicker. He is a microbiologist by training and I think he has definitely taken the yawn out of that profession. He is amazing to talk to and he said that you just might be able to buy it by emailing him at schlick@pocketinet.com just tell them Linda sent you for the 2005 Birch Creek Chardonnay. And thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.