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2005 Vintage

95    Robert M. Parker Jr.’s The Wine Advocate December 2007, Issue 174
A stunning effort, the 2005 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard boasts great intensity along with huge tropical fruit notes interwoven with notions of spring flowers, orange marmalade, white peaches, and steely minerals. Its abundant fruit conceals any evidence of wood. Well-delineated, with outstanding acidity as well as a layered, sumptuous finish, it should age nicely for 4-5 years, possibly longer.

90    California Grapevine, Vol. 332, No. 6, Dec 2007-Jan 2008
Medium-light golden yellow; attractive, floral, ripe pear and spiced apple aroma with hints of nut meg and toasted hazelnut; full body; forward, rich, spicy, ripe pear and green apple flavors with notes of citrus and creamy oak; well balanced and structured; lingering aftertaste. Very appealing to taste now, though deserving of several more years of bottle aging. Very highly recommended.

2004 Vintage

94 (two puffs)    Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine, February 2007
Intense, wonderfully concentrated, bright Fuji apple fruitiness is at center stage from start to finish here while fine, lightly laid-on oak provides a graceful bit of enriching sweetness. The wine has plenty of weight and body yet is so carefully put together that it never comes across as the least bit heavy. Its combination of balance and continuity bodes quite well for the future, and it is safe to assume that this very good wine will be better yet with a few years of age.

94    Robert M. Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate 12-22-06
Always my favorite, this wine has extraordinary intensity, with wonderful tropical fruit interwoven with orange blossom, white peach, and some mixed tropical fruits, even a hint of litchi. The undeniable minerality and floral notes add to the complexity of this stunningly full-bodied, opulent, but well-delineated wine. It should drink well for 5-8 years, possibly longer.

94    Steven Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar May/June 07
Green-gold. Rich and focused, with smoky, spicy orchard and pit fruit scents complicated by a strong iodine-y quality. Dense with extract and admirably pure in its pear and white peach flavors, with an exotic smoky, earthy note on the back. Picks up energy on the finish and shows outstanding concentration and persistence. I could taste this for minutes after swallowing it.

91    California Grapevine, Vol. 32, No. 6, Dec 2006-Jan 2007, p. 110
Medium-light golden yellow color; attractive, forward, intense, slightly floral, toasty, spiced pear aroma with notes of hazelnut, charred oak, vanilla, and butterscotch; medium-full body; rich, complex, toasty, spicy, pear and citrus flavors; well balanced and structured; crisp, steely finish; lingering aftertaste. Should continue to develop and improve with several more years of bottle aging. Very highly recommended.

2003 Vintage

95 (three puffs)    Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine, March 2006
This riveting and wholly fascinating Chardonnay is among the deepest, most generously fruited to be had from the vintage, and its themes of perfectly measured, optimally ripe, lemon-kissed apples are overlain by wonderfully rich oak and a light note of lees. It is already complex, but it shows the keen composition and impeccable balance to keep it perking for a half-decade or more, and it strikes us that collectors with an eye for the best to be had would be well advised to set a few bottles aside for at least a two or three years.

94    Robert M. Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate 12-26-05, Issue 162
The 2003 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard is a stunning wine of great individuality, with wonderful minerality, sweet lemon oil, honeysuckle, white currant, and floral notes intermixed with a crushed rock-like note, and a long, heady, full-bodied finish. This beautiful, pure Chardonnay should age nicely for 5-7 years.

92(+?)   Steven Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar May/June 2006
Yellow-green color. Lime, apple, spices and a floral topnote on the nose; more fruit-driven than the Hudson. Boasts lovely juicy fruit intensity but comes across as quite tightly wound today. This is much less expressive than the 2003 Hyde bottling was at the same stage; last year it was the '03 Hudson that was in a rather mute stage in March.

93    California Grapevine, Vol. 32, No. 2, April-May 2006, p. 33
Medium-light golden yellow; attractive, floral, spicy, earthy, green apple aroma that developed depth and intensity with airing in the glass; full body; big, forward, intense, plush, buttery green apple flavors with a full, rounded mouth feel; firmly structured; long finish; lingering aftertaste. Needs another year or two of bottle aging to reach its prime. Very highly recommended.

2002 Vintage

95   Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar May/June 2005
Medium yellow. Knockout nose combines lime blossom, soft citrus notes, pear and white flowers. Sweet, juicy and penetrating, with highly complex flavors of soft citrus fruits, lime peach, nectarine, flower and mint. At once solid and vibrant. Finishes with palate-staining persistence and terrific grip. A great California chardonnay.

93 (two puffs)   Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine, March 2005
While among the most involving and deepest offerings to be found in this survey, this exceptionally well-balanced bottling finds a bit more brightness and buoyancy than most wines of its weight and range manage to muster. It is loaded with fruit and generously oaked, and it stays both rich and fairly light on its feet through to its very long, impressively layered finish. As wholly seductive as it is right now, it can only get better with age, and we look forward to positive growth for another three or four years.

93    California Grapevine, Vol. 30, No. 6, Dec 2004-Jan 2005, p. 114
Medium-light golden yellow; attractive, forward, toasty, spicy, nutty, ripe pear and green apple aroma; full body; forward, plush, toasty ripe pear and green apple flavors with notes of toasted hazelnut and crisp acidity; well balanced and structured; lingering aftertaste. Deserves decanting prior to serving or another year or two of bottle aging. Very highly recommended.

92   Wine & Spirits, April 2005, pg. 107
The Year's Best Chardonnays: A big, satisfyingly rich wine, this starts on wood, then ends on fresh pear. Th fruit keeps developing along a clean sweep of flavor, a vinous character of well-grown grapes, their acidity hitting the tongue just as their voluptuous textures relieve it. With a day of air, the buttery pear builds toward gooseberry and white chocolate flavors, delicious with the caramelized edge of roast veal.

Four+ stars    Ronn Wiegand’s Restaurant Wine, Vol. 17, No. 1
One of the best Chardonnays of the vintage. The Hyde is a bit fleshier and riper in flavor; a rich, round, complex Chardonnay, with full body, complex flavors, and excellent balance. It tastes of roasted nut, vanilla, grapefruit, apple and pineapple.

92    Robert M. Parker Jr.’s The Wine Advocate 02-28-05, Issue 157
The expressive, richly fruit, exotic 2002 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard is exuberant, flamboyant, and unmistakably from the New World. This hedonistic Chardonnay is best consumed over the next 1-3 years.

2001 Vintage

93 (two puffs)    Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine, Dec. 2003
Here is a wonderfully refined offering whose poise and careful sense of composition comes with no dearth of fruity depth and compelling richness. Smelling of green apples, toast and minerals, it is long and layered on the palate with insistent impressions of nervy young fruit punctuated with notes of stony spice and laced with vanillin oak.  Always lively and light on its feet, it promises to grow with time and should serve famously with richer seafood recipes.

93    Steve Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar, Issue 112, Jan/Feb 2004
Soil-inflected aromas of minerals, iodine, and nutmeg.  Offers a rare combination of texture, breadth and verve for California chardonnay.  Really expansive in the middle palate, with powerful fruit and spice character complicated by a peaty suggestion Islay scotch.  A major mouthful of chardonnay.

93    California Grapevine, Vol. 29, No. 6, Dec 2003-Jan 2004, p. 110
Medium-light golden yellow color; attractive, intense, complex, distinctly varietal aroma with notes of hazelnut, vanilla, and citrus; full body; rich, concentrated, firmly structured, toasty, nutty, apple and tropical fruit flavors; well balanced; crisp lemony finish; lingering aftertaste. Deserves several more years of bottle aging.  Very highly recommended.

Five stars    Ronn Wiegand’s Restaurant Wine, Issue # 98, p. 18
Once again Ramey has produced two of the top Chardonnays of the vintage. The Hyde is a finely flavored, supple Chardonnay, which is rich and subtle in flavor, very well balanced, and long on the finish, tasting of apple, peach, pineapple, toast, and spicy oak. Exceptional.

92    Robert M. Parker, Jr’s The Wine Advocate, 12-23-03, Issue 150
The 2001 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard reveals a more floral, feminine-like, perfumed, stylish nose offering aromas of white peaches, pineapples, honeyed citrus, and background mineral characteristics.  Medium to full bodied, with crisp acidity as well as admirable delineation and palate presence, it should be drunk over the next 2-3 years.