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: 2018 Diatom (Brewer-Clifton) "Katherine's" Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay

2018 Diatom (Brewer-Clifton) "Katherine's" Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay (Elsewhere $40)

SKU #1511201 95 points Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark All clone 4 from a site just beside Bien Nacido, the 2018 Chardonnay Katherine’s has an Alsatian slant in its green citrus, tangerine, white flower, and honeysuckle aromas and flavors. With beautiful purity, plenty of minerality, medium to full body, and a crisp, layered style, this gorgeous Chardonnay does everything right. Inner quote mark (10/2019)

94 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark The 2018 Chardonnay Katherine's comes from clone four, self-rooted vines that are 49 years old. It has a wonderfully open, perfumed nose of ripe quince, peaches and apricot, sweet hay, dried chamomile, orange blossom, spring honey and toasted almonds plus hints of crushed shell, lime peel and saline. The light to medium-bodied palate offers intense, seriously minerally flavor layers with great supporting texture and juicy acidity, finishing long, layered and energetic. (EB) Inner quote mark (9/2018)

94 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2018 Chardonnay Katherine's, from the Cambria estate in Santa Maria, exudes depth and old-vine character in its powerful, dense feel. These 50-year-old, own rooted vines confer striking complexity and character. This is such a compelling wine. (AG) Inner quote mark (9/2018)

91 points Wine Enthusiast

Outer quote mark Extremely jubilant aromas of Fruit Stripe gum, guava, pineapple and mango make for a fresh and lively nose on this bottling. The palate zips with acidity that cuts through the ripe peach, pear and pineapple-guava flavors, which are powerful yet framed in a tense texture. (MK) Inner quote mark (9/2019)

K&L Notes

Diatom is a small project from legendary winemaker, Greg Brewer. These wines focus on single site Chardonnays from across Santa Barbara County mostly focused on sites with largely diatomaceous based soils. These ocean derived soils produce wines with a distinctive mineral quality and Greg's winemaking uses very little oak and minimal intervention so nothing masks the vineyard's true sense of place. Katherine's comes from a very special block of vines that is now 50 years old! The vines are own rooted and produce Chardonnay of immense power and minerality. (Ryan Woodhouse, K&L Domestic Wine Buyer)

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2018 Diatom (Brewer-Clifton) "Katherine's" Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay

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Product Reviews:

By: Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 12/8/2020 | Send Email

First and foremost this is an absolutely delicious and eminently drinkable bottle of wine. Anyone who follows my staff reviews will know that "quaffability" is very high on my list of admirable qualities. However, if you manage to pause long enough to really savory this wine (and I tried very hard to for the purposes of this review) you will find a wine of depth and complexity with a core of undeniable minerality. The wine has a beautiful floral component, apple blossom and honeysuckle lead into flavors of poached pear, golden quince, and salt preserved lemon. A powerful, oceanic quality of sea spray and oyster shell pervades the wine and adds lovely complexity and umami character. The mouth feel is also very interesting as the wine is at once racy and zesty with plenty of verve but also has a a sense of natural density and extract perhaps owing to the vines that are 50 years old and growing on their own roots. Greg Brewer has once again subtly crafted a wine that perfectly represents this historic, cool-climate site in Santa Maria Valley and gives us a bottle of uniquely California Chardonnnay that we can feel very proud of.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Chardonnay

- It's hard to believe that up until about 30 years ago, this extremely popular varietal hid behind the veil of geographical names like Chablis and Puligny-Montrachet. Now grown all over the world and bottled by its varietal name, Chardonnay has achieved a level of branding unlike any other wine. Surprisingly, though, what you get when you buy Chardonnay can differ greatly from country to country and even within one country, depending on the climate where it's grown and how it is vinified and aged. From fresh, crisp and minerally with apple and lemon notes to rich and buttery with tropical fruit overtones, Chardonnay runs the gamut. In France's Burgundy, Chardonnay is the source of the prized wines of Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne, Mâcon, Meursault and Montrachet. It also the foundation of exceptional Champagne, where it is blended with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier or vinified on its own into Blanc de Blancs. It is also extremely popular in California, and is gaining popularity in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain and South Africa.

Country:

United States

- When people consider domestic wine, they normally think about the state of California. The fine viticultural Region within California, including the Napa Valley, Sonoma, Santa Cruz Mountains, Mendocino and Santa Barbara, are capable of growing grapes of world-class quality. But there's plenty of fabulous wine coming from other states, too. Oregon, Washington and New York are also causing eyebrows (and glassware) to be raised around the world.

Sub-Region:

California

- With the explosive growth that California's wine industry has seen the past several years, it's easy to view winemaking and grape growing in the Golden State as a recent phenomenon. And while it's true that California's viticultural history is brief compared to several European countries, this state's roots date back well over 200 years. Due to the enormous response to California wine within the United States and worldwide, there are thousands of excellent and diverse wines being produced within the state each year.

Specific Appellation:

Santa Maria/Santa Barbara

- Santa Maria and Santa Ynez make up the two AVAs of Santa Barbara County, an area known for its natural beauty and temperate climate. The best grape-growing areas, however, are located on the very coastal reaches of these two appellations, and are cooled by ever-present fog and ocean breezes (it is even cooler and foggier here than Carneros!). As expected, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir thrive while the more inland zones lay claim to Bordeaux varietals and some Rhône blends.