Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
There’s a boatload of Chardonnay from this reference point estate, and the beauty is that they're all distinct as well as brilliant. Starting with the 2018 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard, which comes from the eastern side of Sonoma and limestone soils, it offers a Chassagne-Montrachet-like bouquet of white flowers, lemon blossom, buttered stone fruits, and salty nuts and crushed rock-like nuances. It displays bright acidity, medium body, terrific concentration, and a rock star of a finish. Always one of my favorites in the lineup, it will benefit from a year in bottle and keep for 10-15 years in cold cellars.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard is exceptionally expressive and elegant this vintage. Opening with savory notes of prosciutto and mushroom, it fleshes out to ripe white peaches with accents of elderflower, citrus pith and hazelnut. It’s medium-bodied with a satin-like texture and expressive flavor layers, powerful but featherweight, cut through with tangy acidity and mineral notions and finishing incredibly long and ethereal. This is the best McCrea Chardonnay from Kistler I've ever tasted.
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.