Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay 2023

This cuvée comes from the famous Hyde vineyard, located in the Carneros appellation, at the southern tip of the Napa Valley, in California. This area bordering San Pablo Bay receives cool breezes and fog from San Francisco Bay every day, which temper the heat and extend ripening. The 37-year-old vines are planted with the Hyde Old Wente selection. The late, cool 2023 vintage allowed the grapes to ripen slowly while retaining their purity.

The grapes were harvested in a single day, on 30 September, then vinified in a single fermentation, without blending. The wine is then aged for 11 months in French oak barrels, 24% of them new, then rests for a further 6 months in tank before bottling. Only a few hundred cases were produced.

This wine reveals notes of flint, truffle, spearmint, hazelnut, stone fruit, honeycomb, clove and lemon zest. The intense, ever-changing bouquet broadens with aeration. The palate, precise and concentrated at first, widens into a rich, silky texture with a dense, deep core, balanced by vibrant saline acidity and a very long finish.

In the United States, 90% of the wine produced comes from California. It was the influx of gold prospectors to California that boosted the California wine industry in the mid-19th century, particularly in the Sonoma and Napa region. At the start of the 20th century, there were 800 wineries. From 1919 to 1933 Prohibition destroyed the vast majority of the California wine industry so that by 1933, only 140 wineries remained producing wine. It was only from 1960 that the wine industry began to recover from Prohibition and California was primarily known for the production of fortified wines (in the style of Port). It was also in the 1960s that some of the most famous estates were created (Mondavi, Heitz Wine Cellars, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, etc...). In 1976, a significant event took place: the legendary tasting competition better known as the "Judgment of Paris". He sees the greatest French wines opposing the new American wines. This May 24, an unexpected result shakes the world of wine, since to everyone's surprise, it is the United States which wins. However, this competition remains relatively unknown to the general public. Today, there is no doubt that the United States produces great wines. Even though California largely monopolizes the reputation of American wines with its excellent Zinfandels, the state of Oregon produces some of the best Pinot Noir in the world and the state of Washington offers excellent Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon.