2002 Hyde De Villaine Chardonnay

Community Tasting Notes (12) Median Score: 91 points

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  7/14/2015 - aagrawal wrote: 88 Points

  Dinner @ home; 6/4/2015-7/14/2015: Golden-orange color; oxidation, funky aromas, orange citrus peel; palate is full bodied, rounded, but still great acid; medium finish. 88. Could be Chablis >10 years with premox, or possibly Lopez de Heredia with some age but not quite enough complexity.
  Day 2: Much more oxidation, much less pleasurable to drink.

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  7/13/2015 - RajivAyyangar wrote: 90 Points

  bottle 61910—730
  First accessing.
  
  Visual: Clear, bright, medium yellow in the glass with reflections of gold and straw.
  
  Nose:
  This is not at all what I remember from the last bottle. A bit of reductive stench that took half an hour to blow off. A fair whiff of yeasty/bread-y autolytic leesiness, warm vanilla creme-brulee oak, a bit of overripe apple, with slight oxidation.
  
  In the mouth it is dead-sexy. Elegantly balanced with ripe apple/lemon-cream fruit, bright acidity, satiny weight, and superbly-integrated bitter-wood oak influence. Alcohol registers as only slightly elevated— not the 14.4% listed on the bottle.
  
  I love what's happening with the palate, but I'm not sure what's going on with the nose.

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  3/7/2015 - RajivAyyangar Likes this wine:

  Piano shopping with a few wines to boot (SF Wine Center): Bottle 61910729. Second accessing.
  
  Slightly cloudy
  day bright
  light + gold
  tears - no tears (weird because there’s no alcohol) [How to see tears? Maybe it was a bit cold? Dirty glass?]
  
  NOSE:
  Sweet, youthful nose
  evidence of oak: vanilla, cream, creme brulee. Light toast.
  Fruits: confected lemon, confected orange.
  
  PALATE:
  dry
  med+ body
  med+ alcohol
  high acidity - clean, tartaric with some malic character
  some evidence of oak on the palate
  mellow lemon, lemon curd,
  creme brulee is lighter on the palate than on the nose.
  
  Score: No score (We didn't give this as much time or air as it deserved). Still - it was sweetly-flavored and lovely, with vibrant acidity.

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  2/28/2015 - RajivAyyangar Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Inaugural Wine Lair tasting with DGH and EH (SF Wine Center): Bottle 61910729, 1st Coravin. (note: in the future, pre-pour around 10 minutes and let it warm up from cellar temperature).
  
  Medium gold, star-bright in the glass. The nose had initial reductive notes that blew off quickly, giving way to a ridiculously sweet and intense nose of lemon curd, creme brulee, pear, pure vanilla tones, well-integrated oak, also a hint of dissociated wood, secondary trace hints of butterscotch, toffee, and tangerine (all very faint). Despite all these descriptors, the nose wasn’t over-sweet. None of us could resist returning to this over and over again to smell. EH likened the nose to a story of baking a lemon pound cake. First you smell the vanilla, the citrus, the butter, the cream. Then you smell it while baking - warm, expansive notes. Then as it matures in the glass you get more dried sweet aromas. Caramelization.
  
  In the mouth, medium+ body, medium+ alcohol (14.4%), medium-high acid (very nice clean lactic with a hint of mineral tartness on the finish). On the midpalate, ripe flavors of peach cream (the only hint of the peach yoplait I remember from the ’01) and melon, with well-integrated oak and creme brulee. It lingered on the finish, the secondary non-fruit aromas fading leaving a rich tone of lemon curd along with vibrant acidity. This wine is nervoux, exciting, delicious, well-articulated, and un-complicated. One can deconstruct the reasons why it works so well, or just smell it and sigh. We did a lot of both the former and the latter.
  A stunner of a bottle - despite being from ’02, it presents youthful and fresh. I have no idea what will happen to this with age.
  Score: Between 9 and 9.5

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  3/2/2013 - td1836 wrote: 88 Points

  Deep golden color. Somewhat subdued/closed nose with caramel coming through, but not much fruit. On the palate, stony minerality, with the acid overpowering the fruit a bit too much. Rough on the finish. Past prime, but I wonder how it would have been in it's youth?

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