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Thursday, January 4, 2018

Wine Review: Jenny Dawn Cellars Sta. Rita Hills Chardonay 2016


Jenny Dawn Sta. Rita Hills Chardonay 2016

As soon as I saw that I had been followed on Twitter by Jenny Dawn Cellars I knew I had to try their wines. Why? Because even though they're not settled in yet, Jenny Dawn will be a Kansas winery by the end of 2018. KANSAS! Cool, right?

How could you not throw your support in for people wanting to make fine wine in Kansas? Seriously, I don't see how any wine lover wouldn't be excited about people making wine in non-traditional (or what we consider non-traditional) places. I've seen snobs scoff at the idea and I want to stick my middle finger an inch away from their stupid faces. Russian River started off as lumber yards, now get your head out of your ass. Ahem... anyways... in all honesty, I just wanted to try some wine from Clark Kent's home state.

Jennifer McDonald of Jenny Dawn Cellars
JENNIFER MCDONALD
IMAGE CREDIT: bizjournals.com
But because they were just founded in 2016, their first vintage was both sourced from and made in California. They will continue to buy their fruit exclusively from California, but they'll have a winemaking facility up and running in Wichita by November of 2018. It'll be the base of their operations and will also include a tasting room, store, and event venue. They're also planting an apple orchard in Wichita to make apple wine, which is basically apple cider but with higher alcohol. All of this will make Jenny Dawn Cellars the first urban winery in Wichita.

Speaking of firsts, Jennifer McDonald is also the first African American CEO of the winemaking industry in the entire state of Kansas. She founded Jenny Dawn Cellars, named after a Kansas wildflower, with fellow entrepreneur Lesley Selvidge. Both of these lovely ladies have a ridiculous amount of degrees and education. Meanwhile, some dumbass that graduated from a tech school for offset printing is about to review their wine. Let's drink! I've got their 2016 Chardonnay and their 2016 Pinot Noir!

So their premier Chardonnay is out of Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbera County, California. It's completely unoaked and that's all I really know about it. Fortunately that's all I really care to know about it because the most important thing is... damn, it's good!

The color of the wine is a pale yellow with silvery edges. The nose has a chalky minerality over aromas of white flowers, green apples, lime, canned pear juice, and juniper berry. It's medium bodied, surprisingly creamy on the midpalate mouthfeel, and has a mouth-watering acidity. There's flavors of green apple, lime, lemon, and pink grapefruit. It finishes crisp and tart and tastes like you just finished a tonic squeezed with lime and grapefruit.

Listen, I never thought I would give a $40 unoaked Chardonnay a rating like this if it wasn't from France. Never. Never ever. But I'm about to. Jenny Dawn kicks off their inaugural vintage with a killer Chardonnay! Outstanding! Looking forward to that 2016 Pinot Noir!

QUALITY VS PRICE RATING
Price: $40
Rating: 4.5/5 = Recommended / Highly Recommended (what does that mean?)

The bottle used was supplied free of charge for the purpose of this review. To have your wine reviewed follow this link.

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