Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Hudson Vineyard Chardonnay smells of golden apple juice, white pepper, ginger snaps, and a bucolic note of hay. The wine is wonderfully ripe and satisfying with a glycerin mouthfeel. Flavors expand to pear sauce, flinty minerality and marzipan. This is Carneros Chardonnay at its most serious. Enjoy over the next 10 to 15 years. The wine has a slight haziness showing our commitment to minimal intervention winemaking.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard is a toasty, nutty, baked peaches and pear tart sex bomb, with an incredible array of nuances on the nose conjuring notions of struck flint, earth, meat, baking bread and allspice. Medium to full-bodied, rich and oh-so-sensuous, it delivers incredible fruit, savory layers and a very long finish.
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James Suckling
Lots of ginger and sliced apple, pear, and lime skin aromas. Full body, stone and citrusy. Intense energy. Lemon pound cake. Drink or hold.
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.