2018 Rivers-Marie Purrington Rued Vineyard Chardonnay 18RMPRVCH75

'The 2018 Chardonnay Purrington Rued Vineyard is a wine of tremendous character and nuance. Readers will find a lush, bold Chardonnay loaded with tropical fruit, sweet spice and ripe apricot flavors. In the glass, the 2018 offers quite a bit of textural depth if a bit less of the delicacy found in some of the other wines in the range.' - 93 pts., Antonio Galloni

The exoticness of this site continues to amaze us.  It starts with notes of candied ginger,
apricot compote, nectarines and lychee. 
Like the 2017, it has Alsatian overtones that don’t immediately scream
Chardonnay.  That comes in later with a
dense textural impact and a swerve toward lemony, citrus notes.  This wine is a combination of so many things
we strive for in our winemaking:  site,
clonal and vintage expression here coupled with vine age.  These vines are 50 years old which allows us
to do very little in the vineyard and cellar to make what we think is the best
version of this site.  Only vine age can
do that with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. 
We touched on our future jealousy a bit in the last Pinot mailer, how
the next generation will find working with 40, 50, 60 year old sites
commonplace.  Here we get a little
glimpse into that future.