Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Chardonnay hints at sweet corn but delivers vibrant apple and pineapple flavors. There's greater richness and texture than in the more polite 2021, but the wine remains medium-bodied and silky textured, with a lingering, elegant finish. With only about 10% new oak and no malolactic fermentation, it's a fine example of a less-worked Napa Chardonnay. Best After 2023.
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Tasting Panel
The climate in Napa Valley is just about perfect for beefy Chardonnay. The team at Mayacamas has figured out a way to circumvent that climate and make a very well-rounded wine—not an easy feat. This vintage is basically Goldilocks: Not too big and not too thin, it’s just right. It begins with an understated roundness, and there is a tartness to the fruit that is juxtaposed by the lightly toasted oak. Think of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book but in a wine bottle: Everyone will take away their own experience from this wine.
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.
Centered at the peak for which it is named, Mount Veeder is Napa’s largest sub-AVA. But even though the entire appellation spreads over 16,000 acres, vineyards cover a mere 1,000. Scattered among Douglas firs and bristlecone pines, Mount Veeder vineyards extend south from the upper elevations of the Mayacamas Mountains—the highest point at 2,400 feet—to the border of the Carneros region. Less than 25 wineries produce wine from Mount Veeder fruit.
Winemaking began early in this appellation. In 1864, Captain Stelham Wing presented the first Mount Veeder wine to the Napa County Fair; it came from today’s Wing Canyon Vineyard. Prohibition, of course, halted winemaking and viticulture wasn’t revitalized until the founding of Mayacamas Vineyards in 1951 and Bernstein Vineyards in 1964.
The Bernstein Vineyards was actually home to the first Petit Verdot in California, planted in 1975. Today most of the Petit Verdot in Napa Valley originates from this vineyard.
Rocky volcanic clay and ancient seabed matter dominate Mount Veeder soils—perfect for Bordeaux varieties. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot enjoy spectacular success. These varieties produce wines rich in brambly blackberry and black cherry fruit with herbal and floral aromatics. Structures are moderate to assertive and wines have great staying power.
Chardonnay from Mount Veeder is lush, full and balanced mineral and fresh citrus flavors.