2021 Chardonnay Cuvee Cathleen

A youthful yellow hue, the 2021 Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard Cuvee Cathleen is sunny with a bit of white pepper spice and aromas of green tea and citrus rind. Full-bodied, with good richness and a more pithy texture, it’s ripe with green almond, melon rind, mushroom earth, and pear. It‘s long on the palate and the same bit of grippy texture the Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard has. Drink it over the next 10 years. Located in the Russian River Valley, Kistler is led today by winemaker Jason Kesner, who continues the long tradition of working from a singular clone of Chardonnay with Burgundian lineage that Steve Kistler, now of Occidental Wines, began in the 1980s. The 2021s were all tasted at the winery with Jason this May. Across the board, the wines from this vintage carry a savory profile that’s less about its fruit character and more about texture and sense of place, expressing a haunting sense of power and range. These are wines that I sometimes find difficult to pin down into words, but they are truly worth experiencing for yourself.

The 2021 Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard Cuvée Cathleen is one of the best wines I have ever tasted from Kistler. Complex and multi-faceted, the 2021 offers up an exciting mélange of ripe orchard fruit, dried flowers, mint, spice and anise. There's an energy to the 2021, a feeling of noble complexity, that is so alluring. (AG)

A great chardonnay that shows opulence with structure, with lemon drops, cooked apple, dried peaches, flint and oyster shell. Some pumice and basalt. It’s medium-bodied at the beginning but it builds on the palate with superb depth and power. Spicy at the end, like Hunan peppers. Incredible character. Complex with a capital C. Try after 2026.