Dark Horse Chardonnay is a full-bodied Californian white wine from winemaker Beth Liston, the driving force behind the Dark Horse style and now Vice President of Winemaking at Gallo. Her expertise matters because Dark Horse is built specifically on applying techniques usually associated with more expensive premium wines, but at an accessible price point. For this Chardonnay, that means ripe California fruit, experimenting with oak, control over mouthfeel, and 1 year of aging on the lees for a silky, creamy mid-palate.
The grapes come from selected Californian vineyards, with fruit from Lodi serving as an important foundation for the ripe and full character of this Chardonnay.
Location / Origin: The Chardonnay grapes are selected from prominent vineyards in California. By combining fruit from different areas, Beth Liston can build a style with ripeness, roundness, and fresh balance.
Lodi fruit: The fruit from Lodi gives this wine plenty of peach, baked apple, and stone fruit. This ripe profile forms the recognizable Californian core of Dark Horse Chardonnay.
Climate & Influences: The warm and dry growing season, with minimal heat spikes, ensured a good balance between flavor ripeness and acidity. This gives the wine its full fruit, while keeping it lively in the glass.
Vineyard management: Canopy management played an important role in allowing just the right amount of sunlight onto the berries. This helps to develop ripe aromas without losing fresh acidity.
Vineyard & Harvest: Yields were lower than the previous year, causing the vines to produce fruit with vibrant flavors and aromas. This contributes to the intensity of peach, mango, pineapple, and lemon cream.
Dark Horse Chardonnay is made with an approach that is normally much more strongly associated with premium Chardonnay.
Harvest & Selection: Beth Liston selects the grapes based on ripeness, fruit quality, and balance. This selection is essential for a wine that needs to perform above its price point.
Chardonnay approach: Chardonnay is often called the winemaker’s grape because you, as a winemaker, have significant influence over oak, texture, and mouthfeel. At Dark Horse, you see this reflected in the combination of ripe fruit, fresh acidity, and creamy width.
Aging / Oak treatment: The wine ages for 1 year on the lees. What is lees aging? It is aging on fine yeast cells, which gives the wine a silky mouthfeel and more weight in the middle of the palate.
Oak influence: The Chardonnay has a toasted vanilla oak touch. This provides warmth, roundness, and a soft finish, while white nectarine, lemon cream, guava, and honey keep the wine fresh and fruity.
Alcohol content: With 13.5% alcohol, this Chardonnay has enough body for its full, creamy style.
This Californian white wine is made entirely from Chardonnay.
100% Chardonnay – California: Chardonnay gives this wine its ripe peach, baked apple, pear, mango, pineapple, honey, and creamy structure. In this style, the grape gains extra breadth through Californian ripeness, lees aging, and toasted oak.
