Winemaker Notes
Chardonnay has been the preeminent white wine at Bethel Heights since the first vines were planted here in 1977. Today they have five different blocks of Chardonnay planted on various benches and slopes around their estate vineyards.
The 2023 Casteel Chardonnay is the first vintage of this wine that they blended from all their individual sections of Chardonnay planted between Bethel Heights and Justice.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This wine is perennially one of the best Chardonnays in the region, a select blend from the finest barrels each vintage, with lots varying from year to year, bearing the family name Casteel. Aromatics of chipped flint, smoky grilled lemon wedge and sweet spiced notes of candied ginger leap forth. The palate is intensely coiled, electric minerality, crushed slate, briny notes of seaspray and savoury edges framed by lemon beebalm and verbena. The finish is long, contemplative. This is a wine to age for a decade before its full potential will be realised.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Primarily from a block adjacent to the winery, the bright yellow 2023 Chardonnay Casteel Estate offers smoky reduction as well as aromas of wet stones, white peach, mango, fresh flowers, and beeswax. The palate is ripe and full, balanced by a zesty lift and a long-lasting finish. Drink 2025-2035.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From the Justice Vineyard, the 2023 Chardonnay Casteel has slowly unfurling aromas of peach, pear, panna cotta, chamomile, honey and matchstick, gaining in intensity and expression as it airs in the glass. The medium-bodied palate is dynamic, detailed and perfumed with succulent flavors and a luxurious, silky texture. It’s balanced by vibrant acidity and has a very long finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay Casteel entices with a bouquet of dusty dried flowers, gingery spice, shaved pine and green apples. It is soothingly round and pliant, with a gentle mineral tinge and white pit fruits elevated by a hint of sour citrus. This 2023 shows excellent length and leaves the palate completely cleansed as flinty nuances and a tart green apple concentration fade. The combination of complexity, energy and freshness makes this a total pleasure to taste.
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.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.