“This iconic winery continues to offer wines with personalities and styles that set them apart (especially the estate wines) from just about anything else readers will taste from California.”– Robert Parker, Wine Advocate
Mt Eden is a historic boutique winery located in the Santa Cruz Mountain appellation about 15-20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. It was founded in 1945 by Michael Ray, and he focused primarily on small plots of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet. Like Robert Parker mentioned in the quote above, these wines are very different from the usual California wines, and they definitely have their own distinct personalities.
The 40 acre vineyard is farmed sustainably without irrigation and is planted on a shady cool mountaintop. It’s comprised of 20 acres of Chardonnay, 13 acres of Bordeaux Varieties (Cabernet, Cabernet Franc & Merlot) and 7 acres of Pinot Noir. In 2007, they purchased a nearby mountainside vineyard that brought in another 12 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and a little bit of Cabernet. They named the vineyard Mt Eden, so that is where most of the fruit for the Mt Eden wines are now produced. Production on most of their estate wines is in the 1200-2000 case range, so the focus is on quality, not quantity.
Many of their top estate bottlings are highly allocated, but we were lucky enough to secure some of their newest release – The 2012 Mt. Eden Chardonnay Estate Santa Cruz Mtn. Their estate Chardonnay is produced from vines that were planted in the early 1940s and late 1960s by Martin Ray. They were created from a Burgundian selection that originated in the Paul Masson vineyard. 20 acres are farmed from the Mt Eden vineyard, and they average between 1200-2000 cases a year. Yields are extremely low for this Chardonnay and far below the average in California. All of the juice from the estate vineyard is barrel fermented in one year old Burgundy barrels and then aged on the lees for 10 months. On top of that, the Chardonnay is then cellared for two years prior to being released for sale.
As I stated above, these wines are very unique to this part of California, and you really can’t compare them to any other wines from this region. This isn’t your typical oaky Cali-Chard with notes of butterscotch and tropical fruit. My tasting notes for this wine include, lemon, lime, crushed stone, spices and mint. Plenty of acidity and an overall balance that is striking but not cloying. It reads like a Grand Cru Burgundy review, and it has the stuffing to age for at least 10+ years. This is easily one of the top Chardonnays I’ve had from this region and is a must buy if you’re looking for a cellar worthy California Chardonnay! It also received a top score of 95 points from Antonio Galloni. A great wine to enjoy this summer and beyond.