2023 TOR Wines Chardonnay Cuvee Susan Hyde Vineyard Carneros Napa Valley 750 ml

From iconic vintner Tor Kenward and his 100-point winemaker Jeff Ames, this bottle hails from one of the greatest vintages ever to grace the North Coast. Its source is the Hyde Vineyard, a true California Grand Cru, one of the best—if not the best—sites for Chardonnay in the world. The accolades were sure to follow, and this phenomenal bottle earned 98 points from James Suckling, who put it in his Top 10 US wines of the year. 

“An ethereal wine that's wonderfully light in texture and ultra rich in flavor at the same time,” he wrote, it’s a “great vintage from a great single vineyard. Silky, layered, detailed and ripe but balanced.” The 98-point score put the bottle up there with Chards that cost much more, bottlings like Kistler’s $150 Laguna Ridge and Rhys’s $200+ Horseshoe Vineyard.

Hyde Vineyards proudly proclaims itself the "King of Carneros"—and they can back it up. It’s one of the oldest and most important vineyards in the windy hills between Napa and Sonoma, where fog and cool breezes allow for long hang times and rich, vibrant fruit. It’s a site that has earned its status as California royalty.

Hyde sells grapes to a who's-who list of in-demand producers, and they have a waiting list a mile long of Napa and Sonoma winemakers who are dying to work with their fruit. The reason? When it comes to farming, nobody babies his vines better than Larry Hyde. 

Founded in 1979, famed Hyde Vineyards is set on gently rolling hills on the Napa side of chilly Carneros. The vineyard blueprint is ingenious, offering each Chardonnay plant optimal southeastern exposure. The soils are poor—meaning vines have to burrow harder and deeper in search of nutrients. The vineyard requires rigorous work, and the payoff is succulent, golden berries of luscious juiciness and a fine acid backbone.

Tor and Jeff’s Hyde Chardonnay comprises some of Hyde Vineyard’s old-vine Wente And Calera clones. The wine was whole-cluster pressed with no juice settling, straight into tank, then barrel. Fermented on wild yeast, the wine took about two weeks to reach dryness, at which time malolactic kicked in. The Chard was racked about a month before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.