Chardonnay. It's a grape that makes many wine lovers shudder. I blame the over-oaked, buttery, flabby chardonnays coming out of California. The overly tropical ones coming from Down Under aren't doing us any favors either. I'm talking about barrel fermented chardonnay here, by the way. Gary over at Wine Library TV complains about these wines and the "Oak Monster." And he's right. There was even a time when I turned my nose up at barrel-fermented chardonnay because so few winemakers seemed to know how to use oak judiciously--as a spice rather than main component. Local wineries fell into this trap as well, resulting in gawky, disjointed wines that did both the grape and the region a disservice. But in the wine world, there are always exceptions. I've always found the chardonnays made by Roman Roth at Wolffer Estate Vineyards exceptional in a lake of local chardonnay.