You may recall our wine whine about how the 2005 Farnese isn’t nearly as good as the 2004.

We got to do another 04/05 vintage comparison last night with the Coyote’s Run Unoaked Chardonnay. Coyote’s Run is an excellent new specialist winery in the St. David’s area of the Niagara Peninsula–near the river just down from Queenston Heights, if that makes sense. They’re obviously on some good soil and can make wines of real character. 2004 was a good year for traditional Ontario specialties–Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir–that don’t like it too hot. The 2004 Unoaked was a classic minerally Chablis style (apparently in addition to mineral we got “peach, floral, honey, citrus, even a hint of pineapple/papaya”). It faded kind of quickly (the last bottles we bought weren’t nearly as good as the first bottles), but it was great while it lasted. The 2005 (from a warmer summer) is also pretty likeable–it’s got a nice toasty pineapple nose that would ordinarily make you think it might have seen some oak. It’s also got a bit of citrus and mineral in the background. But personally, we miss the 2004’s cooler personality.

While I’m on the topic of Chablis, the folks at the Summerhill Vintages talked the woman standing next to me (and, consequently, me) into picking up a bottle of the Domaine Bernard Defaix 2004 Chablis 1er Cru. It’s supposed to be classic Chablis. Not cheap though, a bit under $30.