7/11/2023 0 Comments Matchbook chardonnay 2014![]() The mouth is totally mouth-coating and enveloping yet still light on its feet, with an acid focus in the middle that keeps the wine bright. Exotic lychee, always a hallmark of this wine, leads the nose, underlain with orange blossom, Asian pear compote, a hint of butterscotch, and a side of citrus. The long 2016 season gave our Rued Chardonnay even more effusive aromatics, along with the perfect balance of zesty and creamy that we love in this wine. The wine finishes with a wonderful combination of brightness and richness, like a lemon cake with butter brickle ice cream on the side. The mouth is decadently creamy, with lychee and orchard fruit compote kept lively by a core of focused citrus. Explosive apple, Asian pear, and lemon/lime fruit is interlaced with gardenia and lemon blossom in the nose. If anything, the Labor Day weekend heat spike gave the fruit a bit of extra concentration that shows immediately in the vivid aromatics of the 2017 vintage. Old vines with deep roots and strong canopies like those at Rued barely notice weather vagaries, maintaining their stoic presence no matter what Mother Nature brings. Originally budded as Old Wente selection, it turns out that over half of the wood he received was a so called “chardonnay musqué” selection, which produce wines of floral, high-toned fruit aromas, and exceptionally rich mouthfeel. In 1969 Warren Dutton planted this scenic Chardonnay vineyard on a redwood ringed, east-facing hillside in Green Valley. The berries are thick skinned and tiny for chard, and produce a wine of solid acidity, unusual minerality, an enticing depth of flavors and tremendous ageabilty. The soil is super sandy Goldridge series, the old vines are dry farmed, impressively healthy, and amazingly consistent, whatever the weather throws at us. But the clone is just a small part of the distinction of this magical place. The selection has since been propagated across California and is referred to as the “Rued Clone.” Like all of the Wente offshoots, these are not truly “clones” but field selections propagated from preferred vineyard cuttings, rather than a single shoot in a nursery. ![]()
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