Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The incredibly young 2013 Ramey Chardonnay from the Hyde Vineyard could very well be one of America's best white wines. This Chard exhibits excellent power yet remains elegant and crisp. While already showing hints of potential, one can enjoy it now if one does not have the patience to wait. For maximum enjoyment, invite one of your geekiest wine pals and enjoy with a rotisserie chicken (organic, of course, for the best flavor marriage). Medium to deep straw, yellow color; ripe apple and peach with a nice hit of sweet oak in the nose, just beginning to synergize, simply fascinating to simply swirl, swirl and swirl; medium bodied, active and lively on the palate; dry, fine acidity, well balanced; enticing flavors of ripe core fruit, dried earth and sweet barrel; long finish. Just beginning to drink well, but will improve greatly with a few years of bottle age. (Tasted: May 20, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
A classy example of sleek, Burgundian Chardonnay, this is trim, with lively acidity and a zesty offering of tangerine, citrus, tart white peach and subtle oak. Charming now but built to age, this will likely be better by 2017. Sails along on the finish. Drink now through 2021.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
All of the Ramey single-site Chardonnays show fairly close kinship with respect to their ripe yet zesty, very solidly structured builds, and, of a very good lot, this one from the Hyde Vineyard is the deepest and most explicit of them all. It is deep and continuous with a controlled sense of potency and great concentration, and, if still fairly tight, its richness and depth are impossible to miss. Like its mates, it is a wine that warrants waiting, and, however, impressive it may be at the moment, it is guaranteed to grow even more so with age.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard displays plenty of wet, gravelly minerals, medium body and terrific acidity, with notes of apple blossom, citrus, honeysuckle and white peach. This is one of the Chardonnays that ages well, and a 2005 served at the same tasting was still holding onto life.
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.