Advent Wine Challenge Day 20: Gürbüz Chardonnay
Another day closer to Christmas! I kind of cannot believe that I managed to keep this going all through Advent. Well, almost all the way through, a few more days to go! Today’s wine comes from one of my favorite winemakers, Akın Gürbüz. 
Advent day 20
Gürbüz Chardonnay, 2020
This was the first vintage with a varietal Chardonnay from Gürbüz. While I’m still only a tentative member of Team Chardonnay (I approach each new bottle with trepidation), I always want to at least try whatever he has made.
Grapes for this wine came from Tekirdağ and aged eight months oak. The wine poured a light lemon with green highlights and was initially both very oaky and a little reductive. A little bit of breathing and the wine opened nicely to reveal melon, pineapple, and apricot with hints of toast and a waft of wood smoke. The palate offered a round, silky mouth with nice lemony acidity and tropical fruit enrobed in vanilla cream.
I really appreciate that Akın generally manages to keep his alcohol levels on the low to moderate scale. Case in point this wine at only 12.6% abv.