Kistler Vineyards McCrea Vineyard Chardonnay 2016
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Connoisseurs'
Guide -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Athearn Estate-Bottled since 1988. Located on the eastern flank bench of Sonoma Mountain where redwoods thrive in a very rare for the area mix of Sonoma volcanics and limestone. Produces one of our more elegantly scented Chardonnays, perfumed by delicate morning floral and citrus blossom aromas, leading to a chalk like, subtle, ethereal core of fruit and lovely acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
While several members of the Kistler clan incline to youthful restraint, this impressively layered offering is more immediate and accessible. It leads with a deep and decidedly complex, beautifully composed nose of ripe apples and crème brûlée that is highlighted with deft touches of roasted grain, and its expansive flavors build to its considerable aromatic promise. It is a polished, full-throated Chardonnay that delivers richness to spare, and, while so rich and outgoing that it invites drinking right now, it is so alive and marvelously well-balanced that it is bound to become more compelling yet if allowed to age for another three or four years.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a site in the Sonoma Mountains, the 2016 Chardonnay McCrea is an elegant, racy at times, Chardonnay that has building minerality in its white flowers, brioche, and citrus-driven bouquet. It a brilliant, mouthwatering effort that’s going to put on weight with time in bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard offers up gorgeous notions of ripe peaches, honeyed toast, grapefruit and orange blossoms with touches of ginger and marzipan. Medium to full-bodied, it has a lovely satiny texture and tons of stone fruit and savory layers with a good, long spice-laced finish. Rating: 93+
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.
Defined more by altitude than geographical outline, the Sonoma Mountain appellation occupies elevations between 400 and 1,200 feet on the northern and eastern slopes of the actual Sonoma Mountain and is part of the greater Sonoma Valley appellation. The mountain reaches 2,400 feet; its hills separate the cooling winds of Petaluma Gap from the Sonoma Valley.
On a cooler western flank, Pinot noir, Chardonnay and Syrah enjoy a great deal of success. Vineyards on its warmer, eastern side, interspersed with heavily forested areas, tend to include Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, and Syrah. Given its complexity of topography and mesoclimates, Sonoma Mountain excels with a wide range of grape varieties.