Winemaker Notes
Bottled since 1986. Located in the southern reach of the Sonoma Valley, where it meets the Sonoma Coast and Carneros appellations. Our portion of the vineyard is a marine loam heavily influenced by a stony vein that transects our blocks. Produces a Chardonnay with lovely weighted base tones, tones of sun kissed orchard fruit and a sublime rich nature that is consistently threaded with and supported by an energetic acid core.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Sensational notes of apple blossom, white flowers, and tart pineapple emerge from the 2016 Chardonnay Durrell. It’s medium-bodied, fresh and lively, with an incredible sense of balance and purity. As with all these releases from Kistler, it’s a complete, layered, age-worthy effort that needs short-term cellaring.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Slightly closed at this youthful stage, the 2016 Chardonnay Durell Vineyard slowly unfurls to reveal pineapple, pink grapefruit and lemon curd scents with underlying notions of baking bread, chopped almonds, chalk dust and allspice. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is beautifully poised between intense tropical and citrus flavors and fantastic tension, featuring a long, silken-textured finish.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Introduced by relatively accessible, up-front aromas of juicy, red apples and creamy oak, and similarly marked by easy-to-get-at richness once in the mouth, the Kistler’s Durell Chardonnay is one of the more rounded and forward offerings in the winery’s 2016 collection. It is by no means soft or lacking in life, but neither is it limited by structural tightness, and, if sure to hold up nicely for several years, it smacks of fruity succulence to the point that it is thoroughly likeable now.
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.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.