Kistler Les Noisetiers Chardonnay

Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler founded this now legendary winery in 1978, since when it has become one of California’s most revered producers of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Steve Kistler’s vision, pioneering at the time, was to demonstrate transparency of vineyard site. He retired in 2017, passing on the baton of winemaker to Jason Kesner who had himself performed a long apprenticeship as assistant winemaker. The fifteen vineyards in the North Coast stretch from western Sonoma County to Carneros. The majority of them are owned and farmed by Kistler. In deference to site, each of the Chardonnay bottlings are grown from the same heritage clone of Chardonnay (Old Wente) that they have been using since the start. It delivers tiny berries and small bunches, high-acid/low pH wines, and naturally low yields of 2.5 to 3 tons per acre (roughly 33 to 40 hl/ha) Each of those bottlings is vinified in the same fashion, the focus being on the traditional techniques that elicit the earth driven, complex noble sulfides and resulting minerality inherent in the fruit from each site.

The Chardonnay is made using traditional Burgundian techniques and has a very distinct style less focussed on fruit than on minerality and soil-driven character. It is barrel-fermented using indigenous yeasts, aged in thirty percent new French oak barrels, un-racked and in contact with all its fermentation lees, undergoes full malolactic fermentation, receives minimal handling and processing. It is bottled unfiltered and un-fined after eleven months of barrel age.