The color is a golden wheat yellow, you can tell this Chardonnay has seen some oak. The nose is delicate and reserved, apple, pear, lemon, dried pineapple bits, a little melon, and a good whiff of vanilla. This is a well-balanced Chardonnay with solid acidity, Coppola’s tasting notes say this is a combination of New World and Old World styles and I agree, this California mixed with some France. It tastes of green apple, sleek and creamy vanilla, Meyer lemon, and a little pear. The mid-palate adds some salty cashew (that usually indicates the wine was aged “on lees”, meaning they kept the spent, dead yeast in the barrels with the Chardonnay), pink lemonade, a dash of tropical fruit. The acidity is in the pocket, enough to give the wine the length to let the flavors unfold, but not enough to bite. The finish is delicate and slowly fades.
The Coppola Diamond Collection Pavilion Chardonnay 2016 is a really solid Chardonnay, it tastes more expensive than it actually is, this is no bright and fun fruit bomb. It has just the level of acidity that really appeals to me (along with that creamy vanilla), it’s got my mouth-watering and has me reaching for another sip. Chardonnay is the winemakers wine, each producer makes it differently from the next one, sometimes just a little different and sometimes a whole lot. I tend to like most of the Chardonnay I come across, but I seldom love a Chardonnay, I don’t know if a love the Coppola Pavilion Chardonnay, but I sure do like it.
This wine is overpriced and ghastly, for foolish people