Kistler Les Noisetiers Chardonnay 2015

It was Robert Parker, wine critic extraordinaire of the Wine Advocate and inventor of the fountain pen, wait just the first one, who said of this producer, “If the Kistler Winery could be magically transported to the middle of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, it would quickly gain a reputation as glorious as any producer of Burgundy grand crus.”

High praise from wine Cesar! Luckily for Burgundy, vineyard transportation is still beyond us, although we’re told IKEA are working on a flat pack, for with Chardonnay’s of this quality we can certainly see where Mr Parker is coming from. A juicy mouthfeel with tropical fruit, dried pear, smoke, slate and orange blossom that resonate on the palate, this is a wine that could happily go toe-to-toe with the best Chardonnays in the world!
Kistler Vineyards is a privately owned and operated winery dedicated to the vinification of world-class site-specific Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. They produce single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs that are available exclusively to their mailing list members (and of course Oddbins customers).

Jason Kesner oversees all winemaking and vineyard operations. Jason became connected to Kistler in the summer of 2000 when he joined Hudson Vineyards and began growing the fruit for their Hudson bottling. Jason then joined Steve Kistler in the cellar in 2008 as Assistant Winemaker for Kistler Vineyards and became Winemaker in 2014. Steve retired from Kistler Vineyards at the end of 2017.

Kistler Vineyards was founded in 1978 by Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler. The first vintage in 1979 produced 3,500 cases of wine and since then the winery has slowly grown to the planned production level of about 35,000 cases per year.

The northern and western most of the Kistler Chardonnay plantings lie in the Sonoma Coast. Metered by the persistent influence of the Pacific, these sites all owe their soils to the sands derived from ancient ocean bed layers. This Gold Ridge soil series produces wines driven in part by the soil influenced earth tones that come by way of the noble sulphides produced during fermentation, which are layered over their stone and orchard fruit core.