The Vice, Los Carneros – Napa Valley (California) Chardonnay 2020

 This wine will not please those looking for a buttery, toasty, creamy Chardonnay, even though it has 30 months on new French oak.  Nor is it likely to please those looking for a Burgundian style, even though it is savory, underwent ambient yeast fermentation, is unfiltered, and only a quarter of the wine went through malolactic fermentation.  It is, in a word, “different.”  But, for my taste, it is “good different.”  Think of French fortified wine flavors, and you’re in the ballpark.  It has lots of wood notes, but more mellow wood than harsh wood, has some dark but not sugary butterscotch flavors, and – yes – a tobacco note or two and some orange peel.  It has complex flavors, and, though not all standard ones associated with Chard, they go well together.  No, don’t use the word “funky,” because it isn’t.  But it is different.