Clearview Estate Winery Reserve Chardonnay 2015
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Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Vibrant powerful fruit & oak characters in its youth develop into more subtle toast & cream notes as the wine matures over several years.
Pair with crayfish or seafood with rich sauces.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Full-bodied and plush, the 2015 Reserve Chardonnay is among the finest I've tasted from this producer. Peach and pineapple fruit are layered with smoke and toasted grain in a velvety-textured parfait of deliciousness, perfectly accented by a long, citrusy finish. Drink it now and over the next 2-3 years while it's in its prime.
Other Vintages
2009-
Robert
Parker
Purchased in 1986, the neglected but historic Vidal's No.2 Vineyard at Te Awanga, Hawke’s Bay was set to become Clearview Estate. Tim Turvey with business partner Helma van den Berg took on the challenge of bringing it back to life. Together they hand grafted and planted the first vines in the winter of 1988. Clearview Estate Winery Ltd was established for the first red wine vintage in 1989, following some experimentation in prior years. Chardonnay began in 1991 with the release of the first Reserve Chardonnay.
Over the next several years, Tim and Helma went on to plant thousands of trees including avocado, olive, bay, citrus, gums, and melia. And they didn't stop there. Together they expanded the vineyard by three acres each year, grafting and planting vines, ramming posts, running wires, training young vines, and for many years completing all of the pruning themselves.
Today the business proudly remains owner-operated. Tim oversees the vineyards and works with chief winemaker Matt Kirby and assistant winemaker Rob Bregmen to create legendary much-awarded wines. Helma manages the finance, restaurant, gardens and her extraordinary team. Steeped in history, Clearview Estate Winery Cellar Door and Clearview Estate Red Shed Restaurant have become an iconic and awarded destination for both locals and visitors from afar.
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.
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.