HDV Hyde de Villaine Chard 750ml 2019 (No Barcode)

Details

The 2019 Chardonnay comes from vines in the Hyde Vineyard that are 25-40 years old and planted to Wente (60%) and Calera (40%) selections. Aged in about 15% new French oak the nose is perfumed and pure with scents of quince apricot beeswax river stone and citrus blossoms. The palate offers a compelling dynamic of satiny expansive fruits and fresh focused acidity and it has a long nuanced finish. It will continue to unwind in bottle over the next 2-3 years and gain savory complexity over the next decade. I visited Hyde de Villaine in the spring of 2022 to taste with winemaker Guillaume Boudet and general manager James Eyer. Hyde de Villaine produced stunning lineups in 2018 and 2019 with exceptional elegance and balanced structures. 2020 was challenging with both wildfires and extreme temperatures. “We made as much as we could in 2020 but the real issue was heat” Boudet explained. “The fires started in August and there’s really nothing you can do. The heat shut down vines like in 2017. The heat and dehydration affected us more than the actual smoke.” The constant breezes at Hyde kept the air relatively clear although there were some ashes on the vines. “We blew the grapes in the vineyard with a fan on a tractor to clean them and rinsed off all the berries with water going super slow on the sorting table so the water could run off. Overall we did our due diligence with the reds. But it is also about preserving relationships with growers. We test we talk about price we figure it out instead of dropping contracts just before harvest. COVID-19 frost fire ash?it was everything in 2020. It was really important to us to respect their overall work throughout 2020. It took courage and guts and risk for wineries to make wines in 2020. It may not be the greatest vintage ever but the fact that it has the merits to exist?to me that is everything