Lot 59 2006 Russian River Valley Chardonnay
- Vintage: 2006
- Appellation: Russian River Valley, Sonoma County
- Grape: Chardonnay
- Alcohol by volume: 13.9%
- Production: 5,000 cases
- Release date: December 1, 2007
- Online availability: Sold Out
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Taste: This sumptuous wine greets you up front with toasty oak notes lifted with vibrant tropical banana and guava fruit. On the palate she’s got brilliant fruit, perfectly integrated new French oak, and a kiss of butter cream again lifted with pretty minerality and that patented Russian River Valley acidity. Notes of citrus blossom, tropical fruit, and vanilla cream increase in intensity as the finish rolls in like a wave and increases in intensity. This wine is defined by a beautiful sense of elegance and fabulous overall structure. Drink now or hold onto this wine for another 4-5 years.
The components for this wine come from a series of RRV single vineyard designate wines and all feature French oak with varying degrees of new wood. Whole cluster press and 2-day cold settling. On average we are talking about 50% new French cooperage and about 50% malolactic fermentation.
Cameron Confidential: Our office tasting today confirmed it: this is the best Chardonnay we have ever released. I am dying to tell you where we got this beauty but we would be shooting ourselves in the foot to do so. This wine comes to us from one of the legendary producers who put Sonoma County on the map sourcing from Dry Creek, Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley, and Napa Carneros. They have a series of single vineyard designate Russian River Valley Chardonnays (with MSRP’s of $30-38) and this blend is assembled from cuts from those programs (wineries cut wines for a variety of reasons: to limit inventory and maintain prices, maybe the components didn’t fit into the blend, or the wine simply wasn’t good enough for their high-end programs). Our winemaker got wind of the wine coming up for sale, showed up on their doorstep and tasted it before it hit the market. I got a call (“you gotta move quickly, this wine is a SWEETHEART and it’s not gonna last) and bought it site unseen. Glad I did and so too will you be.
