Year after year, Michael Fay and his team at Domaine Serene release one of the Northwest’s most acclaimed examples of Chardonnay, and the flagship of their seven examples of Oregon Chardonnay does not disappoint. With the focus on Dijon clones, their traditional approach to its barrel program is 13 months in French oak, with about 30% new wood. That begins to explain the nose of sweet roasted nut skin and toasted marshmallow backed by lemon peel and soft caramel. It’s clean and well-structured in the flavor profile of white peach, Meyer lemon, vanilla and marcona almond, adding up to a lingering citrusy feel that’s deliciously salivating. And the scale of its production is rather remarkable. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Evenstads’s five-level, gravity-flow vinification facility near the top of Dundee’s Hilltop Lane. Last year, Domaine Serene opened its Wine Lounge in tony Lake Oswego. This fall, it received a gold medal the 2020 Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition, a judging staged at the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Ore., on behalf of sommeliers, wine merchants and journalists from across the country.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 3,300 cases
Alcohol: 13.6%
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