Eyrie The Eyrie Chardonnay 2019
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Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Spirits
Wine &
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Winemaker Notes
Their Chardonnay The Eyrie originates from The Eyrie Vineyard and is a selection from the best barrels of the vintage. . Old vines give the wine a distinctly direct connection to the mineral underlayment of the soil. Firm acidity complements a richly textured mid-palate spiked with notes of flowers and sea grass. These oldest vines in the Willamette Valley are among the last surviving remnants of the Draper field selection, a French import from the 1930s now extinct outside of their region. Upon harvest, the grapes from these venerable vines are gently destemmed, crushed and pressed in slow cycles. The wine ferments in mostly neutral French oak barrels and ages in their cool cellar for one year on the lees. Since each barrel ferments with its own yeast and ages at its own rate, each barrel becomes very distinct. Before bottling, Jason tastes each barrel. Those barrels which speak to the longest aging potential become the The Eyrie Chardonnay.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay The Eyrie, matured in just 11.5% new oak, is expressive and singular, offering an alluring dynamic of ripe, spicy fruit and savory bass tones. A core of baked apple fruit is accented by scents of mushroom powder, flint, fallen leaves and cinnamon on the nose, shifting continually as it spends time in the glass. The medium-bodied palate is incredibly concentrated yet boasts focused acidity that drives its generous flavors into a long, flinty finish.
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James Suckling
Salted-caramel and some dried-lemon and apple-turnover aromas follow through to a full body with a creamy, dried-fruit finish. Tangy and edgy. Serious. Intellectual. Drink or hold.
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Wine & Spirits
From a selection of blocks including the property’s oldest vines, this 2019, drawn from a cool season, is a late bloomer. It’s exotic with scents of Thai pineapple, lees and warm citrus. While the flavors have similar breadth, they aren’t the focus. Instead, it’s a wine with dramatic textural movement, the flavors hinting at richness while the texture says otherwise, for it stops on a dime with a lemony snap and a dusty grip to finish with lean clarity. Give it time to develop.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.