Name: Ceritas Chardonnay Zephyr 2022 750ml
Brand: Ceritas
SKU: 984572
Price: 87.17 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 96 (1 reviews)

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Winery

Ceritas

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Varietal

Chardonnay

Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one that has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is Chardonnay. This green-skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity, which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.

Country

United States

Of all the New World wine countries, perhaps the one which has demonstrated the most flair for producing high quality wines - using a combination of traditional and forward-thinking contemporary methods - has been the United States of America. For the past couple of centuries, the United States has set about transforming much of its suitable land into vast vineyards, capable of supporting a wide variety of world-class grape varietals which thrive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coastlines. Of course, we immediately think of sun-drenched California in regards to American wines, with its enormous vineyards responsible for the New World's finest examples of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines, but many other states have taken to viticulture in a big way, with impressive results. Oregon, Washington State and New York have all developed sophisticated and technologically advanced wine cultures of their own, and the output of U.S wineries is increasing each year as more and more people are converted to their produce.

Region

California

California as a wine producing region has grown in size and importance considerably over the past couple of centuries, and today is the proud producer of more than ninety percent of the United States' wines. Indeed, if California was a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, with a vast range of vineyards covering almost half a million acres. The secret to California's success as a wine region has a lot to do with the high quality of its soils, and the fact that it has an extensive Pacific coastline which perfectly tempers the blazing sunshine it experiences all year round. The winds coming off the ocean cool the vines, and the natural valleys and mountainsides which make up most of the state's wine regions make for ideal areas in which to cultivate a variety of high quality grapes.

JD 96pts

Jeb Dunnuck

A bright straw yellow hue, the 2022 Chardonnay Zephyr comes from the coastally influenced region between Bodega Headlands and the Sebastopol Hills, where cool coastal air envelops the vines. The soils provide shallow, exposed topsoils, slowing the vine's maturation and extending the growing season. The grapes develop thicker skins, which has resulted in producing a striking and savory wine. In the glass, the wine opens with nuanced reductive and flinty aromas that give way to notes of wet stone, almond skin, white peach, saline, and fresh flowers. The palate offers a medium-bodied frame, concentrated richness of extract, and notable structure, with lasting notes of lemon balm through a long and rounded finish. It deserves a few years in cool cellars and will begin to show its best in the next several years. Drink 2026-2038.