Leading off the four Russian River releases, the 2018 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch is from a cooler, later ripening site and has a medium-bodied, elegant, incredibly classic style as well as notes of white flowers, brioche, apple blossom, and toasted bread. As with all these releases, it has an incredible sense of richness without weight, integrated acidity, and a great finish.

As for the 2013 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch, this leans more toward tropical fruits, such as pineapple and mango, with buttery brioche notes, a good, deep, rich full-bodied mouthfeel and one of the more exotic personalities in this portfolio. Drink over the next 4-6 years.

The 2009 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch fleshes out beautifully on the mid-palate with layers of expressive, radiant fruit. The wine finds its minerality and center on the mid-palate. Apricots, pears, flowers and subtle, darker hints of earthiness come to life on the finish. This is a very complete, beguiling Chardonnay loaded with complexity and sheer class. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019. I was blown away by these wines from Steve Kistler, his partner Mark Bixler and assistant winemaker Jason Kesner. Over the last few years Kistler has refined his approach, as he wasn’t totally satisfied by the way some of his earlier wines had developed in bottle. Today Kistler is picking his Chardonnays at lower Brix levels, using less French oak (with no stirring of the lees) and keeping the wines in barrel for a shorter amount of time, all in an effort to preserve as much freshness as possible. The result is wines that are totally different in style from past years. The Pinots see a maximum of 50% new oak barrels and that number will continue to trend downwards over the next few years. The 2009 harvest started around September 4 for both Chardonnay and Pinot. The 2009s were bottled in December 2010. Unfortunately, I was not able to taste the 2010s, as they had been bottled just prior to my visit. I will taste those wines in October, 2012. A frequent source of frustration among Wine Advocate readers has been the lack of in-the-bottle reviews for Kistler wines. Beginning this year, all wines tasted from barrel will be subsequently reviewed from bottle as well. Readers who haven’t tasted the Kistler wines in some time owe it to themselves to do so. These are some of the most thrilling wines being made in California today.Tel. (707) 823-5603, www.kistlervineyards.com

Intense hazelnut, tropical fruit, honeyed melon, nut and minerally characteristics jump from the glass of the more restrained, light gold/greenish-colored 2008 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch. Not only have the 2008s lived up to or exceeded their potential from last year’s barrel tastings, the 2009s appear to be fabulous as well. Of course, 2008 was a much more challenging vintage and 2009 was a cool year, much like 2005, with slightly lower alcohols and higher yields than the short crop of 2008. All of the 2009 Chardonnays finished with around 14+% alcohol levels and had more minerality than usual. Kistler’s bottled 2008s were all concentrated. The 2008 Chardonnays have the potential to last even longer than the 2009s given the fact that they are even more concentrated than those wines.Tel. (707) 823-5603; Fax (707) 823-6709