Kistler Chardonnays are all made from a proprietary California heritage clone, isolated originally from a grand Cru Burgundy vineyard. An intense sense of the mountain heritage of the delicate stone fruit that is lifted, like its McCrea cousin, yet firmer, and with a stronger core and added layers of richness.
The Kistler plantings on Sonoma Mountain, situated on a hillside bench perfectly suited for growing world class Chardonnay, are interlaced with the rare combination of red volcanic and fine grained chalky soils. The vineyards are planted to California Heritage clones that were selected specifically over the last 30 years to ripen to our balanced wine standards. They are some of the oldest Chardonnay vineyards in Sonoma County. When coupled with the selections in the vineyard the textbook growing conditions afford a wine that is decidedly Sonoma Mountain in character. Annually some of our earliest vineyard pickings each year, this is a wine driven by a grounded, focused mineral core yet lifted by striking ethereal tones of vibrant light fruit raised at elevation.
94 Vinous The 2024 Chardonnay (Sonoma Valley) is really a single-vineyard wine, all from some of the more generous blocks within McCrea. A wine of dimension and class, it offers up an exciting mix of dried orchard fruit, ash, gravel, incense, dried citrus peel, sage and white pepper. The complexity here is just unreal. If there is a hidden gem in the Kistler lineup, this is it!
