Something to Wine About: 2020 Peconic Bay Chardonnay

We are well within the season when we need to think about the wines we are putting on our table for holiday parties, and the wines we need, need to be crowd pleasers. The 2020 Peconic Bay Vineyards Chardonnay is the perfect wine to pair with a countless number of dishes as well as to satisfy numerous and varying palates.

It’s clean and fresh, just as one would expect a stainless steel chardonnay to be. It has a balanced acidity and a pleasing crispness, but it doesn’t have — which some stainless steel chardonnays unfortunately fall prey to — an assaulting and aggressive acidic finish. The finish of the 2020 Peconic Bay Chardonnay is clean with a lovely minerality.

Long Island chardonnays can be dominated by granny smith apple notes. This chardonnay, while green apple notes are present, is layered with so many other beautiful flavors. According to Peconic Bay winemaker Greg Gove, the vines are 41 years old. If ever there was an example of old vines making spectacular wines, this is it.

Gove adds that the majority of it is from the Musque clone, which produces highly fragrant aromas with some lovely floral notes. On the palate one is also treated to notes of pear and citrus. Gove says of 2020, “It was a challenging year with more rain in July than all of last year.”

If this is what a challenging year tastes like, one can only imagine how delicious a good year will taste like.

For pairings think appetizers, seafood, turkey, ham, and all the veggies that might be served on the side. Chardonnay lovers should be pleased by this wine, and those who might shy away from chardonnay, because of being primarily exposed to over-oaked examples, may find this interpretation of chardonnay surprisingly approachable.

The 2020 Peconic Bay Chardonnay retails for $25.