2010 Diatom Chardonnay Kazaoto
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Tasting notes
Bright yellow. Intense, mineral-accented aromas of melon, orange and white flowers, with slow-building spiciness. Powerful, palate-staining pit and citrus fruit flavors are lifted by a zesty, refreshing note of quinine and show excellent precision. At once deep and lithe, finishing with excellent clarity and lingering florality. This sexy wine improves a lot with air.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
The 2010 Chardonnay Kazaoto impresses for a textured, voluminous personality that emerges beautifully with time in the glass. It shows gorgeous depth, persistent minerality and fabulous overall balance.
The 2010 Chardonnay Kazaoto impresses for a textured, voluminous personality that emerges beautifully with time in the glass. It shows gorgeous depth, persistent minerality and fabulous overall balance. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2016. These 2010s from Greg Brewer encapsulate a desire to move even further along a trajectory of simplicity and minimalism inspired by Japanese culture. Greg Brewer has removed the vineyard designations from his wines and replaced them with Kanji characters that he feels capture the essence of each site. Kanji is a traditional Japanese language based on Chinese characters. Brewer describes the 2010 vintage as relatively cool but with heat spikes towards the end of the season. He harvested early to preserve as much freshness as possible and also bottled on the early side. The wines were all fermented and aged in steel, in very reductive environments, with blocked malos and no batonnage. Not surprisingly, most of the 2010s were a bit reduced when I tasted them in June, but the wines showed quite well with several hours of air. These are striking whites for their transparency and purity, even if at times they are north of 16% in alcohol. Tel. (805) 452-5609; Fax (805) 735-9185; www.diatomwines.com