Weekend Wine Sips: 12 California Chardonnays 2011, '10, '09: Mostly Hits, a Few Misses

Here I am on chardonnay from California again. I like some of these wines very much, enough to pass out a few Excellent and Exceptional

ratings. Some, however, the ones over-oaked and malolactic-ed to a fare-thee-well get Not Recommended ratings. And I ask the question I have posed so often in the past: Why would anyone make such undrinkable chardonnay? …