2013 Kistler Chardonnay Durell Vineyard Sonoma Valley

(94 Points)

The 2012 Chardonnay Durell Vineyard offers up plenty of tropical pineapple and more of the orange marmalade and citrus oil notes in a full, deep and fleshier style than the McCrea. Its touch of wet rocks and its good acidity and precision give the wine a well-defined style. It should drink well for 4-5 years.

The Kistler wines were bottled in November/December of 2013 and have had a good nine to ten months to recover from the bottling period. They all performed impressively well, showing perfect acids, great purity and freshness, medium to full-bodied mouthfeels and long finishes. It seems as though there have been a few subtle changes, with perhaps slightly less new oak being used than in the past, and possibly earlier bottling, but these are very minor adjustments in Kistler's Chardonnay style, which is Burgundian, but captures the essence of the beautiful fruit that is available in the viticultural Shangri-La of the diverse microclimates of Sonoma. eRobertParker.com #216 (Part 2), Jan 2015