2010 Chardonnay Cuvee Agustina Richard Dinner Vineyard

The 2010 Chardonnay Cuvee Agustina Richard Dinner Vineyard is notably richer and denser than the straight Richard Dinner bottling. Tropical fruit melds into crushed rocks and French oak in this dense, powerful Chardonnay. A wine of considerable textured and depth, the Cuvee Agustina impresses for its richness. I can’t say the Cuvee Agustina is markedly more complex than the Richard Dinner, but it is quite different in style and interpretation. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2018. It is always fascinating to sit down with Paul Hobbs and his winemaker Megan Baccitich, as these Chardonnays and Pinots run the gamut of styles, clones and sites in Sonoma. According to Hobbs, the 2010 harvest was two weeks later than normal, while 2011 was three weeks later than normal! One of the other main differences is that temperatures increased toward the end of 2010, but stayed very much on the cool side in 2011. My impression is that when all is said and done, vintage 2011 will turn out to be superior to 2010 for this range. As always, the Hobbs house style does a very nice job of capturing both textural richness and plenty of site specificity. Tel. (707) 824-9879

The 2010 Chardonnay Cuvee Agustina Richard Dinner Vineyard is superb. It bursts from the glass with layers of expressive tropical fruit. There is more than enough richness and sheer stuffing to balance the oak in this extroverted yet polished Chardonnay. This is a striking effort.