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Just a quick note before I get into the release email: Lot 68 2007 Margaret River Chardonnay just got a fantastic review from local wine writer Rod Haden. This wine is only available in select NorCal Costco locations (though they are down to the last of their inventories) and we have 33 cases left for the online store.If you are a bargain wine shopper, be sure to check out Rod's new publication TheWineShelf.com. Dear Friends,
I wouldn’t call these diametrically opposed releases but, rather variations on a theme. Chardonnay is truly a winemakers wine; by that I mean that you could give two winemakers 10 tons of grapes from the same vineyard and get two completely different wines from those same grapes. This diversity of styles and flavors is probably why Chardonnay is the best selling wine in the world.
I have to admit to joining the ABC (anything but chardonnay) club a good decade ago when CA chardonnay couldn’t have enough oak and malolactic fermentation – the birth of the buttered toothpick. I think every winemaker realizes that CA “jumped the shark” and the variety of styles now available in the marketplace is as diverse as ever. Ironically, now my most oft-heard complaint is that there simply aren’t enough “rich, buttery” chardonnays to go around.
Well, today we have both bases covered. Neither of these wines is a caricature but, rather, very expressive products of winemaker vision and style.
 Lot 80 2006 Santa Ynez Valley Chardonnay ($12) is the product of a great vintage and a great winemaker. Made in the bold style of the Late 90’s but with the requisite acidity to keep the wine aloft, this wine features excellent depth and complexity. Barrel fermentation in the finest Burgundian barrels, judicious malolactic fermentation (50%), and low yields from old vines are enough to make this wine the priciest chardonnay this winemaker has to offer at $30. Unfortunately, a vineyard partnership dissolved and the wine had to be liquidated in bulk (pardon the pun). Please note we only have 50 cases available online and, at $12, this wine will be gone in short order.
 Lot 91 2007 Russian River Chardonnay ($14) is a crisper, more elegant style and made to our specifications by a renowned producer in the Russian River Valley. There are actually three different bottlings we have cobbled together from various lots that they made for us and this is the first.
The wines are meticulously produced to the same exacting standards with which they make their own wines including hand sorting, whole cluster pressing, and a mixture of brand new oak barrels, neutral barrels (2-3 years old), and stainless steel. After the wines are produced in this variety of medium, we assemble the final blends each with a mixture of new barrel ageing, neutral barrel, and stainless steel according to how the components blend together. Given the amount of control we had over the process along with the first class nature of the program it is no surprise that these wines will be amongst the finest we offer.
Please note this wine is but a baby and will continue to flesh out and gain complexity in the bottle.
Lot 80 is still available at select NorCal Costco’s (please use our Lot Locator to find a wine near you) but for the rest of you it will be available online only. This chardonnay will drink well year round and has a long life ahead of it so don’t be afraid to use our “Buy and Hold” program for Fall delivery (same goes for Lot 68). Lot 91 will be broadly available in Costco‘s across the country starting late Summer/early Fall but not all Costco’s (those stores where we do not have a constantly revolving program). As above, please buy online if our program is not readily available at your local Costco and feel free to use the “Buy and Hold” program if you live in a hot clime.
Cheers!
Cameron
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August Sampler - California's Finest! Our August Sampler features four different varietals, each hailing from a different county in California. Three bottles each of Lot 35 2005 Yountville Cabernet, Lot 58 2006 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay, Lot 63 2005 Lake County Syrah and Lot 69 2005 Dry Creek Valley Merlot. Free shipping! Click here to buy online now.  Lot 52 2006 Vallle De Uco Malbec Dark purple with a
spicy nose of blue-tinted fruit.On the palate bold, dark luscious fruit
enveloped by a backbone of smooth, silky tannin that you've come to
expect from great Malbecs. Smoky and graceful, this wine exudes
"terroir." Click here to buy online now.
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