Kendall-Jackson Estates Collection Camelot Highlands Chardonnay 2018
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Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
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Dunnuck
Jeb
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Pineapple, guava and tangerine with a lush, rich palate. Notes of cinnamon, candied lime and vanilla bean create an appealing and long, lingering finish. All of this overlies a touch of salinity and minerality.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A suave and toasty style, with lusciously spiced flavors of apple pastry, pear tart and brioche, supported by crunchy acidity. The minerally finish features buttery accents that are balanced and fresh-tasting. Drink now through 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fresh aromas of lemon balm and lemon verbena meet with exotic melon, blistered almond and sliced tangerine on the nose of this bottling. The palate is a bit more ripe, yet still chiseled in tone, offering crushed white rock, apple flesh and more tangerine before the vanilla and caramel spices pop on the finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Last of the Chardonnay, the 2018 Chardonnay Jackson Estate Camelot Highlands comes all from the Santa Maria Valley (which is a cooler region) and was fermented and aged all in French oak. Brioche, honeysuckle, toasted nuts, and orchard fruits all define the bouquet, and this beauty is rich, full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, with terrific balance. It's another rich yet balanced, incredibly high-quality white from the team at Kendall-Jackson.
Other Vintages
2021-
Enthusiast
Wine
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Dunnuck
Jeb
Back in 1974, Jess Jackson saw in the fine vineyards of California's cool coastal regions fruit with a variety of outstanding flavors. What if there was a way to produce from this abundance, a single outstanding "cuvée" that offered both quality and value? The result, first released in 1983, was Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, a rich, round and flavorful wine, made with hand-crafted methods. That same year, Grand Reserve was introduced, a line of ultra-premium wines that represented the full potential of California's finest vineyards and winemaking.
Today, over 5,000 acres of vineyard in California's coastal regions are farmed by Kendall-Jackson. Four separate wineries house what is possibly the single largest barrel-fermentation project in the world. But perhaps most important, is that Kendall-Jackson remains a family-owned winery.
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.