Tyler, Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills

Xmas Wines 2025 (Osaka) : Medium lemon appearance. Medium intensity nose of lemon peel, lime, peach. Noticeable secondary notes of butter, yoghurt but certainly not overdone. Delicate toasty notes. Some tertiary development with toasted almond and hazelnut but still quite fresh and primary. High acid, medium alcohol, medium body, medium+ flavor intensity with a lovely sour intensity on the medium+ finish. Some steely minerality on the palate. Lovely balance and mouth coating richness on the palate. Very good quality that’s …

Tasted during California Capstone L3. Logging this tasting note as part of a personal project. Linear but with rare notes... well my notes defo looked "rare" when I am revisiting them today. Linear - the nose was muted with no fruit, as if we were tasting a modern chassagne-montrachet. Now I would think it's not linear but just muted. Quite the contrary, I thought the wine was complex or at least there were some rare notes. Like lily, grape gummy, …

16% new oak. Lowish alcohol. Some tertiary butterscoth and hints of caramel on the palate. An interesting wine. Grilled charred lemon, yellow peach. Medium to full weight. Moderate acidity, which is why this wine is already showing tertiary notes. Long finish, some complexity. Drink up unless you like tertiary notes.

100% Chardonnay from 1.3 acre (0.53 ha) clay loam soil and vines planted in 1999. Manual night harvest and transported in 1/2 ton bins. Whole cluster pressed with no CO2 or SO2. Racked into tank to settle overnight. Native fermentation. Full malolactic. 10 months on lees in 550L puncheons or 220L barriques. Then 3-4 months in tank before bottling with light filtering. 13.1% Abv. Bcakground: Justin Tyler Willett began Tyler Winery in 2005 at the age of 24 as a …

This was definitely more on the acidic/citrus/mineral end of the Chardonnay spectrum instead of oaky/buttery. 13.1% ABV. Didn’t show any signs of aging.

Firm seashell character, apple and melon and lemon fruit but only moderately fruity, oak is pretty mild. Moderately salty, M+ acid, M to M+ body, good concentration. Nice Chardonnay in a restrained and fairly structured and mineral driven style for CA. Overpriced at the $59 wine.com price—doesn’t have the complexity to be really good in that price range—but would be a fair value at $40-45. Now is probably a good time to drink this, it’s not falling off yet but …

A little sulfur on the nose and maybe some reduction after opening, but this drank pretty well without about 45 minutes of air. Tart apple and lemon with just a faint hint of peach, but I’d like some more sophisticated fruit flavors (Vinous says “a phenolic wine that plays more on structure than on fruit” and I would say that this assessment is right on). I do get just a very slight hint of caramel and some bitter almond, but …

Covid-smaking. Norge fulstendig nedstengt. Viner ble distribuert rundt fra hus til hus til alle deltakere. Smaking hjemme over Teams. • 2015 Tyler Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Sta. Rita Hiils Chardonnay (Roger) 13,0 % Farge: Medium strågul, smale tårer. Duft: Tightere nese med kritt, grilla sitron, blomster Smak: Intens munn med grilla sitron, masse mineraler, en del fat, nøtter. Vurdering: Veldig høy kvalitet, tight, trenger mere tid, flott konsentrasjon. Poeng: 93-95

One of the best Napa chards you’ll ever drink. Smells like the sea, tastes like a superb white burgundy. Sticky finish. Buy buy buy.

Outstanding. Loved it. Buttery & smooth.

A drought vintage which made the berries tiny, but concentrated. One of the most powerful wines that they've made. Bottom part of the vineyard with lots of monteray shale with a top soil of sandy loam. Has the matchstick character that I like with the overlay of SB fruit. Chamomile and licorice I am being told. Long finish. Clean and pure. That's interesting.

Nose citrus with light wet wood funk, but not unpleasant. Taste smooth, light fruit, green apple, citrus, soft tannins, finish short and smooth.

A touch of salty brine to the nose. right and clear and salty.

Rather shy nose but still with some layers in the fruit notes with soft tropical fruit and lime. Will probably open up more with some time. The acidity is citric and juicy in the expression and on the palate we also get som peach and minerals. This is a pretty and elegant Chardonnay.