2022 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay Napa Valley

Winemaker Notes: Our 2021 Chardonnay is a thrilling, age-worthy wine, ultra-rich and concentrated yet beautifully balanced with lively fresh-style. Intense aromas of ripe gooseberry, lemongrass, and sweet clover bound from the glass with lingering notes of orange blossom honey. The wine has a brilliant juxtaposition of opulence and bright acidity on the palate, with pure, focused fruit at its core. A surge of tarte citron and toasted almond rides an edge of lifting acidity as polished oak tannins frame the fruit beautifully and seamlessly, captivating notes of salted caramel and baked spiced pear echoing on the finish.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Decanter - "Having toured Stagecoach vineyard with Pahlmeyer winemaker Katie Vogt and talked at length about her strict focus on expressing site, I couldn't stop thinking about the Chardonnay wines I'd sampled. Near the end of the year, I got my hands on the 2022 release of this iconic label's Chardonnay, and it's the kind of structured, powerful, intensely flavourful Chardonnay that you'd want to stockpile in the cellar. It conveys a duality of power and restraint. Knockout aromas of white peach, pineapple, and salted lemon peel, coconut, and wet stone. Full and rich with an extraordinary depth of sweet, creamy fruit that inundates the palate, suspended by an equally penetrating core of saline minerality infused with a luxurious finish of almond pastry notes, dried apricots, and white flowers. One of the most memorable young Chardonnays I tasted all year. Aged in 100% new Francois Ferrer heavy toast oak barrels. Number four of my top 10 wines of 2023."


Wine Spectator - "Expansive, broad and aromatic, the notes of toasted fennel, lemon thyme, litsea oil and vetiver leap out of the glass, giving way to opulent flavors of grilled peach, caramelized pineapple and spiced, baked apples. Shows power and elegance, with crisp acidity pushing the flavors into clarity and helping them linger on the fresh finish."