2020 Paul Lato Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Goldberg Variations No 3
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The 2020 Chardonnay Goldberg Variations Hyde Vineyard, from Wente vines planted in 1979, is lovely at this stage with aromas of baked apples, lemon cream, hay, beeswax, integrated baking spices with streaks of matchstick. Light-bodied and focused yet satiny and layered, it's youthfully coiled and has the potential to blossom over many years in the cellar. It was aged for 16 months in 75% new French oak, and 135 cases were made.
Critic scores
Average Score
Erin Brooks, Wine Advocate
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2020 Chardonnay Goldberg Variations No. 3 Hyde Vineyard comes from a great site in Carneros, in the southern part of the Napa Valley. It has a pure, clean, classy nose of ripe melon and honeyed apples as well as notes of toasted bread and white flowers. It's not quite as complex as some of the other releases here yet is incredibly pure, balanced, and medium-bodied on the palate, with everything in the right place. It has the balance and freshness to benefit from a year or two in bottle and should have 7-8 years, if not a decade, of prime drinking.
The 2020 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Goldberg Variations No. 2 is a tasty, straightforward offering. There is not a ton of Hyde character, but the 2020 does offer good depth and fine balance for a year in which fires were so brutal. Lemon confit, almond, sweet spice and a touch of new oak linger. (AG)
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