|
Over the course of nearly five decades, Kistler Vineyards has cemented itself as one of the iconic producers of Sonoma County Chardonnay.
The winery, founded in 1978 by Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler, is a single clone Chardonnay house, hanging its hat on the Old Wente clone, whose parent material comes straight from Burgundy. For those who may not be familiar with clones as they pertain to viticulture and winemaking, a grape clone is a cutting taken from an existing grape vine. That cutting is then grafted onto a rootstock within a vineyard. The vine/vineyard is chosen due to specific traits a grower wants to reproduce, fruit quality being the main focus.
Besides producing intensely concentrated Chardonnays, the Old Wente clone proved attractive to Kistler because of its neutral character. In July 2022, Kistler told Wine Spectator, it “respected” the site, meaning it wasn’t dominated by floral or tropical notes.
“I wanted the difference between our Chardonnays to be more a difference in site expression than clone,” he said.
Kistler’s style, like many other California winemakers, was largely influenced by the great Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chardonnay produced in Burgundy; the region from which Chardonnay originated.
“Before I started making wine in 1979, I was lucky enough to drink many great white Burgundies from the 1960s and 1970s,” he explains. “I was intrigued by how a Meursault-Perrières from Coche-Dury could have such a different set of aromatics from another producer’s wine made from fruit grown in adjacent rows in the same vineyard.”
Today, Kistler Vineyards is well-known for its heritage Californian selection of Chardonnay planted across fifteen vineyards, from Carneros to Sonoma Valley, to the Sonoma Coast. From those sites, Winemaker Jason Kesner produces eleven vineyard-designate Chardonnays. Single vineyard bottlings include wines from Hyde (Carneros), Hudson (Carneros), McCrea (Sonoma Mountain), Vine Hill (Sonoma Coast), Trenton Roadhouse (Sonoma Coast), and several other properties.
Jason Kesner joined Kistler Vineyards in 2008, after directing vineyard operations at Hudson Vineyards for eight years. For six harvests, Kesner shadowed Steve Kistler, learning the winemaking protocols and procedures that are essential to making the Kistler Vineyard wines so incredibly unique. In 2014 Kesner was promoted to Winemaker and has been leading the charge ever since.
 Jason Kesner, Kistler Winemaker
The Kistler Vineyard Chardonnays are barrel-fermented by native yeasts and aged in custom made French oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation is encouraged, and white wines age on the lees for 11-18 months. Wines are bottled without fining or filtering.
The team also produces a minute quantity of Pinot Noir from several coastal vineyards which they hope will develop into high quality sites, prime for vineyard designate bottlings.
In 2008, Bill Price, longtime owner of Durell Vineyards and Three Sticks Wines, purchased a minority interest in Kistler Vineyards. Several years later, in 2017, Steve retired from Kistler Vineyards, leaving Bill and Jason to see the operation through for its next 40 years.
Today’s Mayacama wine offer provides members with exclusive access to three very special Kistler Vineyard bottlings; 2021 Les Noisetiers Chardonnay, 2021 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, and 2019 Kistler Vineyard Chardonnay (1.5L).
All three of these wines are extremely limited, including and especially the 2019 Kistler Vineyard Chardonnay (1.5L), coming from Kistler’s namesake estate vineyard on Sonoma Mountain. Only 18 of these Magnum bottles are available.
As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions regarding these wines.
Thank you for your continued support.
Cheers!
Carey Vanderborg, Wine Director |