Vintage Notes

Since the 1996 inaugural vintage, the Chardonay has been primarily sourced from the Carneros growers Lee Hudson and Larry Hyde.  Beginning in 2020 we have been privileged to include fruit from the spectacular Coombsville vineyard planted by Warren Winiarski.  In line with the previous bottlings, the wine is defined tension of mineral energy and opulence, honoring its Burgundian antecedents.

From the 6-acre original planting with some vines going back to the 1970s, this gnarly old vineyard miraculously gives us, year in year out, a wine completely unique in the world and offers proof of the French adage that the greatest vineyards are not subject to much vintage variation. It’s like a riddle: how can a wine be so sublimely subtle and so unbelievably intense at the same time? The Judge (John’s father and the wine’s namesake) would have been 103 this year.

We have made Syrah from this 2+ acre vineyard in Carneros since the inception of the brand in 1996. Over 27 vintages it has been as distinct from its competition as the Judge is from the rest of California Chardonnay. This Syrah is a force of Nature. Of course, we make a lot of winemaking decisions as the wine ferments and ages for the 20 months before bottling, but this wine’s magnificent, undeniable voice is beyond our control. More animal than vegetable, our savory Syrah lives in its own rarefied world.