2010 Diatom Chardonnay Hamon

The 2010 Chardonnay Hamon is one of the fatter, more overt wines in this lineup. Layers of ripe, tropical fruit build towards to an explosive, creamy finish. Minerals and lime peel flows across the palate in this striking yet peaceful, calm wine. This shows fabulous focus and length.

The 2010 Chardonnay Hamon is one of the fatter, more overt wines in this lineup. Layers of ripe, tropical fruit lead to the essence of crushed rocks and lime peel as this multi-dimensional Chardonnay builds towards an explosive, creamy finish. This is a striking yet peaceful, calm wine graced with fabulous focus and length. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2016. These 2010s from Greg Brewer encapsulate a desire to move even further along a trajectory of simplicity and minimalism inspired by Japanese culture. Greg Brewer has removed the vineyard designations from his wines and replaced them with Kanji characters that he feels capture the essence of each site. Kanji is a traditional Japanese language based on Chinese characters. Brewer describes the 2010 vintage as relatively cool but with heat spikes towards the end of the season. He harvested early to preserve as much freshness as possible and also bottled on the early side. The wines were all fermented and aged in steel, in very reductive environments, with blocked malos and no batonnage. Not surprisingly, most of the 2010s were a bit reduced when I tasted them in June, but the wines showed quite well with several hours of air. These are striking whites for their transparency and purity, even if at times they are north of 16% in alcohol. Tel. (805) 452-5609; Fax (805) 735-9185; www.diatomwines.com