Grgich Hills Estate
2010 Napa Valley Chardonnay
Chardonnay
California: Napa Valley
Mission Briefing
The Best Yet
Grgich Hills Estate scores another direct hit with today’s 2010 Grgich Hills Napa Valley Chardonnay! This extraordinary wine is complex, balanced and delicious, with flavors and aromas that all work together in perfect harmony.
We’ve had the great fortune to showcase each vintage of this wine, dating back to the 2006 vintage. Each year that we feature it, the current vintage Grgich Chardonnay becomes a best-seller. We expect today’s 2010 vintage to shatter records, for this wine is simply incredible.
If you enjoy elegant, flavorful Chardonnay that will delight rather than bore you, we offer you today’s wine with our boldest recommendation.
Tasting Profile
| Look: | Light straw yellow color, from heart to edge. The wine shows some viscosity, providing clues as to how it will feel on the palate. |
|---|---|
| Smell: | Very fragrant, very aromatic, with a bold rush of lees (brioche) that melds with dark Meyer lemon, honey on fresh French bread, caramel apple, seared pear and white peach. |
| Taste: | Fresh, bold and zesty with delicious flavors of white peach, creamed honey, white pear, tart apple skin, Meyer lemon and lemon curd. |
| Finish: | Mouthwatering and creamy, with harmonious, long-sustaining fruit flavors that tail off to lemon honey. As flavors fade, a slight dryness advances across the palate. |
| Pairing: | Arugula salad with grilled peaches would be a delight. Add some fresh Chevre if you really want to go over the top with flavor and texture. |
What the Winery Says
We farm all of our vineyards naturally, without artificial pesticides or herbicides, and they are certified organic and Biodynamic(R). Our Chardonnay comes from our American Canyon and Carneros vineyards in the southern tip of Napa Valley, near San Pablo Bay, which spills into the San Francisco Bay. The cool maritime breezes and fog allow the grapes to slowly ripen to develop complex flavors while maintaining a pleasing natural acidity that is impossible to achieve in warmer areas.
Cool and long sum up the 2010 growing season. Spring brought below average temperatures with above average rain, pushing back budbreak by two weeks. The cool temperatures continued into summer allowing for steady but slow grape ripening until a series of heat spikes brought much-needed heat to ripen grapes to full maturity.
- Winemaker
- Miljenko “Mike” Grgich
- Appellation
- Napa Valley, California
- Varietal Composition
- 100% Chardonnay
- Farming Practices
- Certified 100% organic and Biodynamic
- Cooperage
- Fermented and aged 10 months in French oak: 60% neutral barrels, 40% new
About the Winery
Miljenko “Mike” Grgich first gained international recognition at the celebrated “Paris Tasting” of 1976. Then, in a now-historic blind tasting, a panel of eminent French judges swirled, sniffed, and sipped an array of the fabled white Burgundies of France and a small sampling of upstart Chardonnays from the Napa Valley. When their scores were tallied, the French judges were shocked: they had chosen Mike’s 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay as the finest white wine in the world. Mon Dieu! The results stunned the international wine establishment and immediately earned Mike a reputation as one of the greatest winemakers in the world.
The Paris Tasting served notice to the world that the California wine industry was on the move, and it laid the groundwork for the creation of Grgich Hills Cellar. After his victory in Paris, Mike sat down with Austin Hills and his sister, Mary Lee Strebl, from the Hills Bros. Coffee family, and on Independence Day 1977, they gave birth to Grgich Hills. It was an ideal partnership. Austin owned premium vineyards in Rutherford, in the heart of the Napa Valley, and with his extensive background in business, he put the winery on its financial feet. Mike, with his fierce commitment to making wines of the highest quality, began producing what immediately became our signature wine: the exquisite, richly complex Chardonnays that win awards and delight wine lovers across America and throughout the world.
Today, we remain committed to making distinctive wines with quality, consistency and longevity. We are proud that world leaders such as Presidents Reagan and Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II and French President François Mitterrand chose our wines to serve at state dinners, but we are just as proud that every single day discriminating wine drinkers count on Grgich Hills to turn their own dinners into special occasions.