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The two acknowledged and indisputable “Grand Cru” Chardonnay vineyards of Napa Valley are Hyde, who we've worked with for 20+ years, and its neighbor a few miles west, Hudson Ranch. An offer of a 3-acre parcel of "Montrachet” clone Chardonnay at Hudson came our way in early 2022 – very flattering and hard to ignore! We prefer to experiment with a vineyard for at least two years before committing to a new bottling, so the natural extension of this new opportunity is a vineyard blend – and an exceptional one at that. And I could not imagine two more complementary vineyards. Hyde brings mineral intensity, sharp focus, and electric acid structure; Hudson is broad, deeply layered, with obvious power and density. A perfect complementary combination both on paper and, it turns out, in the barrel then bottle then glass. We aged this blend in large 500L puncheons to tame the natural richness of the Hudson fruit and preserve the fine line of Hyde acidity. It’s a wine of power and presence with deeply pitched intensity and serious volume, and with lower acidity than our Sonoma wines. A great start and platform for the future.
