2021 Chardonnay Aurata
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Tasting notes
A brilliant yellow/silver color, the 2021 Chardonnay Aurata is expansive in the glass, with notes of white grapefruit oil, delicate toast, ripe apple, lemon confit, sweet herbs, and pineapple. It’s full-bodied and rounded on the palate, with lush sapidity, saline, and fantastic underlying structure. Remarkably balanced, with ripeness but never fat, its crystalline feel carries through the long finish. Drink this over the next 15 years. These wines are reflective and illuminating.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Chardonnay Aurata is brimming with peach, quince paste, almond tart and orange blossom aromas. The full-bodied palate melds ripe fruit, spice and honey and has an especially luxurious, satiny texture. Its sapidity is balanced by fireworks of fresh acidity, and it has a long, layered finish.
Distinctly savory and youthfully coy, the 2021 Chardonnay Aurata emerges from the glass with a bouquet of dusty dried flowers, ginger, lemon oil and shavings of young peach. This splashes across the palate, playful and energetic yet enveloping, with textural waves of ripe pear and yellow apple guided by cooling acidity. The 2021 cleans up beautifully despite its weight and concentration as floral nuances and hints of raw almond linger on and on. Harmonious to the core, the Aurata possesses a complexity that will take years to blossom fully. Today, it’s enjoyed simply on its potential alone. It’s a textural thrill.
Light and easy on first sip, but nicely energized with acidity, showing what winemaker Maggie Harrison calls “intensity and levity.” Honey, mandarin oranges, butter and vanilla bean on a creamy texture leading to a lingering finish. Drink or hold. (JG)