2014 Kistler "Hyde Vineyard" Carneros Chardonnay

The 2014 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard opens with notes of musk melon, lemon curd and baked peaches with hints of cedar, chalk dust and wet pebbles. Medium to full-bodied, it fills the palate with ripe, expressive melon and mineral characters, finishing long and pleasantly oily. Kistler Vineyards remains one of the absolute benchmark producers of great Sonoma Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, sitting right up there with the highest quality examples of these grapes from throughout the world. While the wines come from as wide a range of top terroirs as Sonoma can provide, interestingly nearly all of the Chardonnays are produced from a proprietary selection of Wente clones taken from a Larry Hyde block in the early 1980s. The exception is the Kistler Vineyard, which contains some original Martin Ray Mount Eden clonal material. This can be found in the straight Kistler Vineyard Chardonnay bottling, as opposed to the Cuvee Cathleen, which is mainly Wente selection. All the vineyard-designate Chardonnays are produced in precisely the same manner, meaning the differences between them are almost exclusively down to the differences in terroir. And as readers will see from my notes, the differences are striking. (LPB)

The 2014 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard is rich, seamless and intense on the palate. It is one of the more overt, tropically-leaning wines in the range. Although not quite as deep or complex as it can be, the Hyde will drink well with minimal cellaring. All the vineyard signatures are present, they just aren't as delineated as they are in the very best years. Orange peel, lemon confit, spice and a hint of French oak add the last shades of nuance. (AG)