Byron Nielson Vineyard Chardonnay 2015
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This wine features cuttings from the original “Wente” clone planted on our estate in 1964. These vinesproduce a mix of berry sizes with the larger ones providing ripe, fruit-focused flavors and the smaller ones adding firm acidity and minerality, giving them a wine that is lightly floral, rich and concentrated with hints of apricots and wet stone.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced from Wente clone vines planted in 1999, the 2015 Chardonnay Nielson Vineyard offers up pronounced grapefruit, lemon curd, green mango and almond notes with wafts of crushed stones and baker’s yeast. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is super intense, with layers of ripe, opulent fruit and a wicked backbone of racy acid, finishing with fantastic length.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from sandy, shale and limestone soils, the 2015 Chardonnay Nielson Vineyard from Byron was barrel fermented and spent 16 months in 70% new French oak. Orange blossom, stone fruits and plenty of salinity give way to a concentrated, rich, yet fresh and pure Chardonnay that's ideal for drinking over the coming 3-5 years.
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Wine Spectator
Offers lemon-lime hints to the ripe pear, cream and baked apple flavors, lusciously spiced. Dried sage notes show on the rich finish.
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Byron was founded in 1984 by winemaker Ken Brown. With years of experience as a winemaker in Santa Barbara County, Ken recognized the Santa Maria Valley's potential for great wines in the Burgundian style, and was the first winemaker to introduce Rhone-style grape varieties to the area. The first crush at Byron Vineyard & Winery produced 7,600 cases, and Byron soon gained national recognition for high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
In 1990, the Robert Mondavi family purchased Byron, and Ken Brown became Winemaker and General Manager. He and Tim Mondavi, Robert's son, set about designing the new Byron Winery as an expression of their shared belief in natural farming, experimental viticulture and gentle grape handling. They wanted to eliminate pumping, which shears grape stems, skin and seeds, allows tannins and other harsh elements into the juice and can make wine bitter.
With the aid of noted architect R. Scott Johnson, who designed the Opus One winery in Napa Valley and San Francisco's Transamerica building, Ken designed a multi-level winery that replaces pumping with gravity flow, resulting in more complex, dynamic wines. Byron's vineyards were also expanded and replanted as Ken Brown experimented with trellising systems, new rootstocks and clones, row orientation, and planting density in his quest for the perfect grape.
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.
A lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.