2014 Kistler Chardonnay Cuvée Cathleen
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
A wine of total understatement and class, the 2014 Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard Cuvée Cathleen is bright, lifted and wonderfully detailed. Citrus, white flowers and orchard fruit and soft contours shape this sublime, totally finessed Chardonnay. Along with the Hudson, the Cuvée Cathleen is one of the standouts in 2014.
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The Cuvee Cathleen Chardonnay comes from a rockier block of the Kistler Vineyard, possessing a lot of broken shale and planted predominately to Wente clone selection with a bit of Mount Eden clone. This wine is a 20-barrel cuvee selection from the best of that block. The 2014 Chardonnay Cuvee Cathleen has a youthfully subdued nose of pebbles and wet slate over a core of grapefruit, peach blossoms and mandarin peel, plus the faintest hint of fresh herbs. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is restrained at this early stage, offering tightly wound citrus and mineral notes off-set by refreshing acidity. It finishes long and multi-layered. It is tempting to drink now, but I’d give it 2-3 years for that real “wow” experience and drink it over the next decade or more.
A special section of this fully mature vineyard; less rocky; clonal material is their heritage clone (sometimes called Wente clone) that has been planted in almost all of their other vineyards. Pure as a bell on the nose with some combination of ripe white peach with a refreshing green streak. Very, very slightly smoky/reductive. Delightfully burgundian (sorry) savoury structure on the palate but much more open than any 2014 white burgundy I can think of. Creamy texture. Hint of nutmeg. Overall very appetising on the finish and pretty impressively long. (JR)
The 2014 Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard Cuvée Cathleen provides a fascinating contrast to the straight Kistler Vineyard bottling, as this parcel is all Wente clone Chardonnay. Intensely vivid and layered, the Cuvée Cathleen is exceptionally beautiful, especially in the way it offers so much depth with no excess weight.
About the producer
Kistler’s Chardonnays are some of the world’s most sought-after. This cult Californian producer crafts small volumes of exceptional, rich and generous, yet mineral and precise wines. With almost the entire production sold directly to their mailing list, the wines are also incredibly hard to find.