1 | Wine | White, 91 to 95, 2009

"All the best elements of the vintage and house style come together in HdV’s 2009 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard. The fruit is a bit richer, riper and more voluptuous than in most HdV wines, which serves to balance the cool, vibrant style the estate favors. The 2009 impresses for its length, persistence and spherical finish. This is a great showing from HdV."

"Light, bright gold. Complex, highly fragrant aromas of peach pit, melon and orange peel, with musky floral and mineral qualities gaining strength with air. Lush and expansive on the palate, offering intense, well-defined citrus fruit and anise flavors lifted by chalky minerality. At once powerful and lithe, with excellent finishing clarity and a lingering note of bitter orange."

"Light greenish-gold. Pungent aromas of fresh herbs, pear skin, lime, lees and spicy oak. Juicy and brisk, with tangy acids giving shape and lift to the oak-accented grapefruit, pear and smoke flavors. Finishes sweet, toasty and long, with a hint of anise."

"Delivers an almost inordinate diversity of floral, herbal, citrus, and pit-fruit elements. ...with the bitterness of fruit pits, smoky pungency of red currant and crushed stone, as well as notes of shrimp shell reduction and iodine inflecting a long, bittersweet, yet at the same time vibrant, buoyant finish. This silken textured seducer should gain with time in bottle and be worth following for ten or a dozen years." 93-94+ pts.

"Tiny berry- and desiccated concentration rather than botrytis characterize even the 2009 Vouvray Moelleux Clos du Bourg Moelleux 1er Trie. This evinces an as yet unresolved tension between fresh citrus, chalk, and alkali on the one hand, and honey, caramel, and nut paste on the other. For all of its ripeness, there is a sense of textural firmness underlying the palate impression here. Marzipan, singed vanilla cookies, and suggestions of both peach and strawberry preserves enhance the wine’s confectionary aura, and despite its manifestly good strong acidity by vintage standards, the nearly 100 grams of residual sugar present here certainly result in a dominating youthful sweetness in its formidably long finish. If you want this to balance on its own (i.e. not in a dessert wine capacity) then I would be prepared to wait more than a decade, and the wine no doubt has at least three in it. Pinguet says this reminds him of the 1989 1er trie bottlings at the same stage."

"Bright gold. Intensely perfumed aromas of orange pith, pear and anise, with slow-building spiciness and a touch of salty minerality. Vibrant, finely etched citrus and orchard fruit flavors expand and deepen with air, picking up a sexy florality. The brisk finish features a strong jolt of melon and a touch of iodine."

"The 2009 Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard impresses for its focus and nuance. Layers of chiseled, beautifully delineated fruit emerge from this sculpted Chardonnay. The Hudson is about subtlety first and foremost. Ripe apricots, freshly cut flowers, pastry, lemon, crushed rocks and French oak inform the pure, creamy finish."

"The 2009 Chablis Grenouilles comes across as quite shy and inward, also because of its recent bottling. White fruit, flowers, mint and citrus are some of the notes that take shape in this beautifully delineated wine. The Grenouille exudes great balance of vineyard and vintage characteristics, much more so than the 2010 at this stage. The glycerin-rich finish shows the richness of the vintage."

"Rather shut down on the nose, hinting at orange peel, nutmeg and minerals. Denser and more savory than the "regular" Clos, but at the same time silkier (the vines here are older). A stronger oak element contributes to the impression of breadth and dryness. More bracing on the long finish than the thick palate suggests, with a piquant note of pineapple. I'd give this very rich and saline wine a few years to absorb some of its oak." Reviewed by Stephen Tanzer.

"High-pitched aromas of lemon, vineyard peach and flowers. Tactile and wild, with a very dense, extract-rich palate impression cut by penetrating lemony acidity. This boasts terrific flavor intensity and verve for 2009. The very long, saline finish saturates the palate with lemon and crushed stone. White Burgundy from red wine soil."