Kistler 2022 Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay, Carneros

Kistler Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay  - rare new release.

95 Points Robert Parker: "After opening the Kistler 2022 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard, it opened dramatically over several days. Saline, nori, white pepper and lemon aromas slowly give way to orange peel, apricot, beeswax and floral perfume on the nose. The palate's silky texture and powerfully concentrated fruit are foiled by mouthwatering acidity, and it has a vibrant, expressive finish. That pure, delicate expression is alluring, though it will be long-lived in the cellar."

...Kistler Vineyards remains one of the absolute benchmark producers of great Sonoma Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, sitting right up there with the highest quality examples of these grapes from throughout the world. While the wines come from as wide a range of top terroirs as Sonoma can provide, interestingly nearly all of the Chardonnays are produced from a proprietary selection of Wente clones taken from a Larry Hyde block in the early 1980s. The exception is the Kistler Vineyard, which contains some original Martin Ray Mount Eden clonal material. This can be found in the straight Kistler Vineyard Chardonnay bottling, as opposed to the Cuvee Cathleen, which is mainly Wente selection. All the vineyard-designate Chardonnays are produced in precisely the same manner, meaning the differences between them are almost exclusively down to the differences in terroir. And as readers will see from my notes, the differences are striking."