2013 Lucia Vineyards, Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands.
The fabulous Lucia SLH Chard 2013 is one of the best yet from Jeff Pisoni, he seems to get better each vintage and of course the vineyards without question are getting better with superb farming by the Pisoni family. The SLH is a blend of select Pisoni farmed sites, it all adds up to a rich and layered Chardonnay with a cool streak of acidity and mineral tones, especially true of this fabulous 2013 vintage, (I was slightly surprised and disappointed last year when I tasted 2012’s and found sweet notes mixed with a hint of under-ripe almost veggie notes in quite a few wines from the region), happily this is not the case in 2013 versions, the year seems as close to perfect as you can get in the Santa Lucia Highlands with Pisoni’s Lucia being one of the best set of wines available. The balance is fantastic in Lucia’s latest releases and the quality for price in the Santa Lucia Highlands generic wines is great, if you were tasted blind again top $75 to 100 Chardonnay and Pinot, you would see just how good theses are, and you can see how accomplished Jeff Pisoni is as a winemaker, the ex Peter Michael man is really a huge talent. The SLH Chardonnay starts with bright citrus, white flowers, steely notes and opens to pear, white peach and apple fruits, clarified cream, saline, clove spice, river stones and honey butter/vanilla. This is impressive and the cut of lemony acidity keeps this full bodied effort fresh and dynamic, it drinks like a fine Chassagne and has a nicely lingering finish, best from 2015 to 2018.
($45) 92 Points, grapelive