Description
Foxtrot Vineyards Chardonnay
Incendiary demand, tight-gripped allocations, and the inevitable race against the clock: This has become the ‘norm’ for Foxtrot, an Okanagan producer whose skyrocketing fame knows no bounds. As you are well aware, their generously priced wines have fooled elite blind-tasters into calling top-tier Burgundy—a feat that has earned our undivided attention.
Foxtrot, like many wineries here, is relatively new, founded in 2004 by Gustav Allander and his Swedish-expatriate parents who purchased the estate and vineyard attached to it. When I reached out to Douglas Barzelay in 2018—the collector who originally introduced me to Foxtrot all those years ago—I had no idea that he and his business partner, Nathan Todd, were so captivated by Foxtrot that they seized the opportunity to purchase the estate, while retaining Gustav as winemaker. Sometimes we throw around the phrase “life-changing wine,” and for Doug, it’s meant in the most literal sense: Tasting Foxtrot compelled him to purchase the estate.
After a 30-minute decant, the 2018 pours a radiant straw yellow hue and rolls out a powerful aromatic spectacle: layers of rich yellow orchard fruit, pineapple core, Meyer lemon curd, white peach, crushed white rocks, honey, yellow flowers, almonds, citrus blossoms, and vanilla bean. From start to finish, it’s ripe and intensely layered with vibrating acidity and crushed mineral power. All of this creates beautiful tension that reads like a Burgundian Premier or Grand Cru.
