Mount Eden Vineyards Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay 2006
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One of the largest Estate Chardonnay harvests on record, following one of the smallest in 2005. 56% of the grapes harvested (102 barrels) were selected for the 2006 Estate Chardonnay. Bright pale yellow in color , with classic Mount Eden aromas of lime, hazelnut and crushed stone. It is developing well on the palate with juicy and tight flavors of ripe citrus, earth and penetrating acidity, which contributes to an energetic and long finish.
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Wine Spectator
Simply delicious, a rich, buttery style, delivering ripe, vivid, delicate peach, pear and honeydew melon fruit that's complex, concentrated and full-bodied. Offers excellent length and depth. Creamy oak adds a touch of smoke and vanilla. The texture is silky. Drink now through 2016.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The light straw/gold-colored 2006 Chardonnay Estate reveals more restrained as well as more noble aromatics of crushed rocks, poached pears, and hints of pineapples, orange rind, and candied citrus. Medium to full-bodied with very good acidity, admirable purity, and a long finish, it is best drunk during its first decade of life some of these Chardonnays can last 20 years or more.
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Mount Eden Vineyards is a small historic wine estate perched at 2000 feet overlooking Silicon Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountain Appellation, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. Founded in 1945, it is recognized as one of the original “boutique” California winery properties, focusing on small lots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Mount Eden’s lineage of estate bottled Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is the longest in California. Planted in austere, infertile Franciscan shale on a cool, exposed mountaintop, these low-yielding estate vineyards have consistently produced world-class wines for over a half-century. In 2007 Mount Eden acquired an additional 55 acre wine estate in the Saratoga foothills, which was christened Domaine Eden.
Mount Eden Vineyards also produces non-estate Chardonnays from the central coast, primarily Edna Valley. They have great success making Chardonnay from the Wolff Vineyard and are continually recognized as making outstanding wines from that region.
Since 1981 Jeffrey Patterson has guided the winemaking and grape growing at Mount Eden. His emphasis is on wine growing rather than winemaking; and an obsession with gentleness and naturalness in the handling of the grapes and wines is his ongoing passion.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.
Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.
While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.