Our Provenance Guarantee
Purchase with confidence. All of our wines are selectively sourced and thoroughly inspected for authenticity and signs of poor storage. Accepted bottles are preserved in our climate-controlled cellar until they reach your doorstep. We have no storefront and no walk-in traffic, so nothing is moved or handled between inspection and shipping.
The bottle you see photographed is the bottle you receive (or fundamentally identical when multiple bottles are listed), and our commitment to you is that it arrives as represented. If it doesn’t, we want to hear from you.
Ratings & Tasting Notes:
98 points — Wine Advocate, October 2019
Coming from the Hudson selection, Old Wente clone vines over twenty years old planted on the Napa side of Carneros. Super intense notes of freshly squeezed lemon, lime zest, warm apricots and honeydew melon with hints of hay, paraffin wax and crushed nuts, plus a waft of cinnamon toast. The full-bodied palate is very tightly wound with electric tension, and loads of citrusy accents come through on the very, very long finish.
97–98 points — James Suckling, October 2018
Very exotic, with dried apple and lime aromas and hints of praline and dried pineapple, over oyster shell and marine character. Full-bodied yet lively and vivid, with explosive, bright acidity at the end. “Gorgeous.”
96 points — Vinous (Antonio Galloni), May 2019
A real pleasure to taste now that it has been bottled. Creamy and unctuous on the palate, with striking depth, the Hudson has so much to say. Baked apple, orchard fruit, white flowers and a whole range of bright aromas and flavours develop in a bright, super-expressive Chardonnay. The 80 percent new oak is already very nicely integrated.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Mark Aubert’s résumé is unusual in California: he twice succeeded Helen Turley, first at Peter Michael and then at Colgin, before founding his own label with his wife Theresa in 1999. He has since consulted for Sloan, Futo and Bryant Family, and Aubert has become one of the most sought-after Chardonnay producers in the New World, sold almost entirely through a long-waitlisted mailing list.
Hudson Vineyard sits on the Napa side of Carneros, the cool corridor at the southern end of the valley where fog and bay breezes hold back ripening and preserve acidity. The selection Aubert takes here is Old Wente clone, from vines over twenty years old at the time of this vintage — the same historic clone brought from Montpellier in 1912 that underpins California’s finest Chardonnay. The wine is barrel-fermented and raised in a high proportion of new French oak, 80 percent for the 2017, which critics found already well integrated on release.
2017 was a warm, early California vintage that ended in the October fires, and growers who picked cleanly beforehand made wines of real intensity. That intensity defines this bottling. Expect freshly squeezed lemon, lime zest, warm apricot and honeydew with hay, paraffin, crushed nuts and cinnamon toast, then a full-bodied palate that is creamy and unctuous yet tightly wound, with electric tension and a very long citrus finish.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Outstanding condition.
Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.
