2012 Ramey Chardonnay Platt Vineyard Sonoma Coast 750 ml

Finest David Ramey Chardonnay Since the 2006 Hyde Vineyard?

Despite American wine enthusiasts’ love affair with California Chardonnay, you can count America’s world-class producers on a single hand. In Russian River, the nod goes to Steve Kistler’s wound-up Montrachet-like Chardonnays, bottles that tend to be closed-up on release, often unwinding only after 5-7 years in bottle.

On the highest perches of Sonoma Coast, where Goldridge soils and the cool breezes off the Pacific give birth to bombastic, ripe-citrus Chardonnays, Luc Morlet and his brother Nicolas at Peter Michael rule the roost.

But when it comes to walking the tightrope between youthful accessibility and Burgundian age-worthiness, David Ramey is in a class all his own. For almost two decades, Ramey has been crafting exquisite Chardonnays from select blocks of Hyde and Hudson Vineyards, but in 2009, Ramey decided that the vines at Platt Vineyard had matured enough to join the ranks of the single-vineyard Chardonnays for which he has become famous.

In 2012, widely considered one of the most extraordinary vintages in decades on the Sonoma Coast, Platt Vineyard performed brilliantly. David Ramey, as always, then worked his cellar magic. Here’s why … and how.

Ramey had been eyeing Platt Vineyard, just five miles from the Pacific off Bodega Highway midway between Bodega Bay and Sebastopol, for years before he took the plunge. The vineyard sits at 800 feet in elevation on a south-facing slope overlooking the Estero Americano, which funnels cooling marine weather to the Sacramento Delta via the Petaluma Wind Gap. Planted on prized Goldridge soils, uplifted from an ancient ocean floor, spacing is some of the tightest on the coast — 3-4 feet by 6 feet.

As you may recall, 2012 was the first in a series of four consecutive drought years. Still, despite the arid conditions, temperatures remained mild throughout the summer, without a single heat spike of consequence. Despite Ramey’s predilection for rich, high-acid Chardonnay, ideal conditions allowed David to let clusters hang on Platt Vineyard until October. Harvest began on October 3rd, row by row of selective picking that wouldn’t be done until the 15th. Sugars came in at 23.8 Brix, even as natural acidity remained electrifying.

This is a phenomenal effort, one of our favorite Ramey Chardonnays since the 2006 Hyde Vineyard. Brilliant pale-green. Mouthwatering aromas of pear, citrus, lemon zest, and orange blossom, taut and tense. Rich and tightly wound on the attack, in many ways like a top-shelf Grand Cru Chablis, infused with a complex floral mix of ripe citrus, anise, and white pepper, finishing with exquisite purity and length.

$65 on release. Just $55 today, as if discounting even matters on single-vineyard Chardonnays from the likes of Kistler, Peter Michael, and Ramey. 300 bottles are up for grabs.