2016 Chardonnay Santa Barbara County

Fruit is hand-picked and sorted in the vineyard. After harvesting, the grapes are whole-cluster pressed, and juice is quickly settled and chilled to begin barrel fermentation. The wine is dry and completed malolactic conversion. Pale gold and smells somehow golden and a little spicy. Rich and almost fat in flavour but with decent acidity to balance. More pear and stone fruit than citrus. I wonder about the cork-derived bottle variation as this is fatter and more developed than I might have expected. Generous, broad in the mouth, spiced, golden and still fresh. May well age longer than my conservative estimate on this possibly slightly prematurely ageing bottle. (JH)