Tasting Notes

Release Date: Fall 2016

It’s been thirty years since we started making an Edna Valley Chardonnay. In that time we have always purchased the fruit for this wine from one vineyard which was planted in 1976 by Edna Valley wine pioneer Andy MacGregor (some of you long time Mount Eden Fans may remember that name) and sold to Jean Pierre Wolff in 1999. Our winemaking lineage with this site is long.

Due to the ongoing drought here in California we needed to supplement the fruit we receive from the Wolff Vineyard. We were lucky enough to procure additional fruit from Paragon Vineyard planted in 1974 and Stoller Vineyard established in 1976. With these additions we made an “Old Vines” Chardonnay from some of the very first vineyards planted in the Edna valley.

The harvest occurred entirely in the month of September, early for this cool, coastal valley. In our traditional fashion this wine is entirely barrel fermented and aged sur-lie for ten months. The blend turned out beautiful. Youthful aromas of lemon and mint with toasty oak are engaging. Precise flavors, reflecting perfect numbers at harvest, are complex and reveal Edna Valley at its best.

Production

4,306

Tech Notes

Yield: 1.5 tons per acre

Harvest: September 7th - 22nd

Numbers @ Harvest: 23.0° Brix, 3.33 pH, 8.258 grams acidity

Barrel Regimen: Mix of French & American Oak--New to 5 years 100% Barrel Fermented; 100% Malolactic; 100% sur-lie

Bottling: June 2015

Alcohol: 14%

Reviews

92 points Antonio Galloni presents Vinous  - July 2016

Mount Eden’s 2014 Chardonnay Old Vines, from a site in Edna Valley, is pretty, understated and gracious. Pear, white flowers and sweet spices are all nicely delineated throughout in this super-attractive, mid-weight Chardonnay. Readers will have a hard time finding a better wine for the money. The Old Vines is the current incarnation of the Wolff Vineyard Chardonnay Mount Eden used to bottle. Because of low yields in Wolff, Jeffrey Patterson augmented that fruit with fruit from Stoller and Niven. Quite simply, this is a fabulous wine for the money. Drink 2016-2020.

92 points View From the Cellar by John Gilman - July / August 2016

Issue #64

The label on this bottling has changed ever so slightly with the release of the 2014, as the Wolff Vineyard designation no longer appears on the front, so I have listed the wine to reflect this. However, the fruit source for this cuvée has not changed since the 1985 vintage and remains Wolff Vineyard. The 2014 bottling is an even fourteen percent octane and offers up a superb nose of pear, casaba melon, spring flowers, chalky soil, a touch of crème patissière, gentle vanillin oak and a signature touch of beeswax in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and impressively light on its feet, with a lovely core, excellent, nascent complexity, bright acids and outstanding length and grip on the still fairly primary finish. This is all too easy to drink out of the blocks, but the balance is here for the wine to also age quite gracefully. A very classy bottle and a superb value! 2016-2035.

90 points Wine Enthusiast Magazine - November 2016

From vineyards planted between 1973 and 1976 comes this more southerly bottling from the Santa Cruz Mountains-based winery. Pithy and clean, the nose matches kumquat and pomelo with a touch of smoked chicken flesh. The palate leads with a citrusy edge, showing pear flesh in the midpalate and Marcona almond toward the finish. It’s mouthwatering with a very full texture. —M.K.

90 points Robert Parker Jr's The Wine Advocate - October 2016

Issue #227

More tropical than the Santa Cruz Mountains release, with notes of pineapple, cream corn, white flowers and mint, the 2014 Edna Valley Chardonnay is medium-bodied, supple, pure and polished on the palate, with gorgeous fruit. I don’t think it will make old bones, but it’s a beautiful wine that will drink nicely for 3-4 years.

88 points Wine Spectator  - Web Only 2016

Expresses an intense mix of pithy citrus, green apple, faint butterscotch and tangerine flavors, maintaining a refreshing, mouthwatering presence and a green apple—scented finish. Drink now.–JL