“That’s the best white wine I’ve ever tasted,” a friend exclaimed Friday night. It was hard to argue, because even though I’d had some white Burgundies and Condrieus that were more profound and exciting, this was some exceptional juice. And besides, it seemed silly to go there given the esprit of the evening.

The wine was a 2006 Patz & Hall Hyde Vineyard chardonnay, refreshing and vibrant but with layer upon layer of citrus and tropical fruits and spices and nuts, plus just the right touch of that creme-brulee thing that too often is overdone.

The ‘06 should be available locally, or it can be ordered here, at the vineyard’s website. Patz & Hall’s other chards and pinots have been netting high scores from the Spectator and elsewhere of late, and clearly this winery has got it going on.

As does the Hyde Vineyard, which spawned another delicious chard that I sampled this spring, from HdV. This is a fantabulous grape-growing site for both chardonnay and pinot noir, at the forefront of almost immeasurable improvement in the Carneros region, at least for my palate. 

In the 1990s I found most wines from Carneros mediocre. Not bad, but not all that good. The pinots were decidedly ordinary, and the chardonnays, well, it was as if the whole lot of the winemakers couldn’t decide what style they wanted to embrace: Meursault or malo-oaky. The reults, too often, were a mishmash, some too acidic, most too creamy, with the fruit just barely there.

Not so these days. I’ve also had a superb Carneros chard from MacRostie recently, and very nice efforts from Artesa and Buena Vista. There’s absolutely some butter there in these wines, but they are also deeper and  more lively, true-to-the-fruit efforts than in the past.

And well worth gushing about on a warm summer’s night. Or any time of year for that matter.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 7:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.