SILENT-Fine Wine

Item Description

Kistler Vineyards is a family-owned California winery located in in Sonoma County. According to Food and Wine Magazine, their "biannual release of Chardonnay is one of the most sought after by wine enthusiasts" and Food and Wine Magazine's Wine Guide considers their Chardonnays the "Best of the Best" among "Star Producers". Consistently rated as one of the best Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs with scores in the mid and high 90's.

2013 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir:

91 Points Wine Spectator

A concentrated wine, with impressive energy to its red and black fruit flavors and subtle earth tones. A delicate expression of ripe plum, raspberry and wild berry, rich and graceful, with hints of black tea, dried herb and light oak. Persistent without being weighty. Drink now through 2022.

2012 Kistler Sonoma Mountain Chardonnay

Robert Parker loves the 2012 Chardonnays from Kistler, rating all the Chardonnays he reviewed pre-bottling in the 91-97 point range. This comes from two mountain vineyards on opposing ranges in Sonoma, one in the Mayacamas and the other on Sonoma Mountain. Both share elevation and volcanic soils in common, and the combination of fruit from these two elevated sites yields a svelte Chardonnay with minerality and acidity balancing richness and concentration. "There has been a progressive trend by Kistler’s winemaking team and owners to harvest at slightly lower sugars, back off slightly on the percentage of new oak used, and bottle their wines earlier. All of this is designed to preserve as much fruit and freshness in the wines as possible...This winery has long featured some of the finest terroirs on the Sonoma Coast and Russian River for Chardonnays, and their approach has clearly been very Burgundian, with full malolactic fermentation, no acid adjustments and letting the vineyard and clonal material push its personality to the forefront. Perhaps the biggest change of all has been the shift to 100% indigenous yeast fermentations for all the wines...The 2012 Chardonnays came from a vintage that was warmer than 2011, but never exceptionally hot. The flowering took place much earlier and the harvest was at least two weeks before that in 2011. At the time of my visit, the wines had all been assembled in their bottling tanks, and would be bottled unfiltered."