2015 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard
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Tasting notes
Like a cinema foyer – buttered popcorn and candy. And who doesn’t love that smell? This isn’t a cheap multiplex though, we’re talking boutique screens with luxury chairs – there’s loads of fresh fruit on the palate and superb structure keeping it fresh. Excellent length too. Benchmark premium Californian Chardonnay. (RH)
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Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jeb Dunnuck
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From a site in Carneros owned by the Hyde Family (aka the King of Carneros), the 2015 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard offers up a deep, rich, yet beautifully fresh style as well as perfumed notes of lemon peel, juicy citrus, and honeyed apples. It picks up a hint of pineapple with time in the glass, has building richness, and powerful yet elegant texture that keeps you coming back to the glass. It’s a beautiful 2015 Chardonnay that’s drinking great today.
The 2015 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard has a gregarious white peach, green mango and passion fruit nose with touches of cashews, lightly browned toast and butterscotch. Medium-bodied, the palate is chock-full of zip and zing, with a great intensity of vibrant tropical fruit flavors and a wicked acid backbone, finishing on a lingering mineral note.
Orange peel, spice, vanillin and French oak notes all infuse the 2015 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard. Pliant and inviting, the 2015 gives the impression it will drink well with minimal cellaring. Like all of these 2015 Chardonnays, the Hyde speaks in hushed tones. This is an especially quiet wine from a site that tends to yield more exuberant Chardonnays.