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Long-term Pre-arrival Items
Long Term Pre-arrival Definition: Ordering wine directly through us from our supplier partners in Europe in advance of the item’s physical arrival in the US.
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SKU 978395
$923.70/case
$153.95/bottle
Tariffs included
Out of stock
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The 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is so strikingly different from the Horseshoe. It offers tremendous concentration and pure power, a sort of seamless intensity that builds and then carries through to its substantial, resonant finish. Citrus confit, dried flowers, mint and chamomile linger. What a wine.
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.
Appellation
Santa Cruz County
VM98pts
Vinous Media
The 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is so strikingly different from the Horseshoe. It offers tremendous concentration and pure power, a sort of seamless intensity that builds and then carries through to its substantial, resonant finish. Citrus confit, dried flowers, mint and chamomile linger. What a wine.
WA96pts
Wine Advocate
Another spectacular white wine from Rhys, the 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is a fascinating counterpoint to the Horseshoe bottling. Of the two, the Alpine is the more aromatically dazzling out of the gate, with all manner of herbal, floral, chalky, citrus and orchard fruit aromas immediately jumping from the glass. Texturally, the palate shows a graceful, floating quality that juxtaposes the mid-palate assertiveness of the Horseshoe. The finish is long and spherical, concluding on a distinctive note of spearmint and menthol, with spice notes appearing and building with extended oxygen exposure. This is a fantastic effort all around and one that, as with its somewhat nearby neighbor, should be aged for another five years and eagerly consumed over the next 10.
JD95pts
Jeb Dunnuck
The golden yellow 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard has an expressive and luxurious nose of lemon balm, custard, wet stones, and candied green apple. Persistent and long, it expands on the back palate, with lemon balm, savory saline, a soft texture, and a great, salty lift on the finish. It’s a very persistent yet elegant wine that’s going to mature at a slow pace over the next 10-12 years.
