Paul and I dined at a rule "old school" restaurant in Vero Beach: The Polo Club. The food is classic. It's the kind of place your grandpa liked if he had the money to eat out regularly. We really enjoyed our meal and the wine recommended to us was Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 2012.We told the bartender we weren't familiar with the winery and he said, "Not many people are. They sell out." In fact, you can only get single vineyard wines if you are a part of their wine club. For the rest of us, it's whatever you can find...which isn't really a bad thing!
Kistler Vineyards is a small, family established and privately owned and operated winery dedicated to the vinification of world class Chardonnay and Pinot Noir using old world Burgundian techniques applied to new world vineyards. Produced in Sonoma, just shy of 1800 feet in elevation, in a small bowl on the western edge of the Mayacama mountains lies the original Kistler planting. Thirty year old vines grow dry farmed in deep red volcanic ash, producing a wine with an intense sense of the mountain heritage. I believe this wine, however, comes from newer grape holdings near Freestone and Occidental.
Kistler started out in 1978 with 3500 cases and now produce about 25,000 per year. Like most wine, this is a family affair with Steve Kistler, formerly of Ridge vineyards, heading up as winemaker. They have also borrowed from Fetzer and Hudson vineyards to round out their team, including Mark Bixler who earned a degree in chemistry from MIT. Those are pretty high fallutin' credentials.
Most of the grapes they use are produced at Kistler Vineyards, although they do outsource some of the fruit. They average about 2.5 tons of fruit per acre. Each of their ten Chardonnay bottlings are grown from the same heritage clone of Chardonnay that have been raised for thirty years. This was our first chance to sample it.
JUST THE FACTS:
The wine poured pale gold and clear.
The bouquet on this wine was minerality, melon, pear and honeysuckle to us. The few tasting notes from others I could find out there only commented on crisp acidity, smokiness and slight oakiness. One said "stone fruit."
The tasting profile for us was that of honey, butter and oak-- particularly in the finish. Others have noted "lots of lemon and citrus."
Where ratings are available, they range from 90-93.
This wine really does appear to be scarce and generally is selling from about $55-70 where available. We got it at the restaurant for about $90.
WINE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Either give me more wine or leave me alone.”
― Rumi
Kistler Vineyards is a small, family established and privately owned and operated winery dedicated to the vinification of world class Chardonnay and Pinot Noir using old world Burgundian techniques applied to new world vineyards. Produced in Sonoma, just shy of 1800 feet in elevation, in a small bowl on the western edge of the Mayacama mountains lies the original Kistler planting. Thirty year old vines grow dry farmed in deep red volcanic ash, producing a wine with an intense sense of the mountain heritage. I believe this wine, however, comes from newer grape holdings near Freestone and Occidental.
Kistler started out in 1978 with 3500 cases and now produce about 25,000 per year. Like most wine, this is a family affair with Steve Kistler, formerly of Ridge vineyards, heading up as winemaker. They have also borrowed from Fetzer and Hudson vineyards to round out their team, including Mark Bixler who earned a degree in chemistry from MIT. Those are pretty high fallutin' credentials.
Most of the grapes they use are produced at Kistler Vineyards, although they do outsource some of the fruit. They average about 2.5 tons of fruit per acre. Each of their ten Chardonnay bottlings are grown from the same heritage clone of Chardonnay that have been raised for thirty years. This was our first chance to sample it.
JUST THE FACTS:
The wine poured pale gold and clear.
The bouquet on this wine was minerality, melon, pear and honeysuckle to us. The few tasting notes from others I could find out there only commented on crisp acidity, smokiness and slight oakiness. One said "stone fruit."
The tasting profile for us was that of honey, butter and oak-- particularly in the finish. Others have noted "lots of lemon and citrus."
Where ratings are available, they range from 90-93.
This wine really does appear to be scarce and generally is selling from about $55-70 where available. We got it at the restaurant for about $90.
WINE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Either give me more wine or leave me alone.”
― Rumi
No comments:
Post a Comment