2019 TOR Wines Chardonnay Carneros Napa Valley 750 ml

Tor Kenward and his winemaker Jeff Ames are as ruthlessly selective as any vintners in California about the vineyards with which they work—and for their 2019 TOR Chardonnay Carneros, they’ve married two of the finest Chardonnay sites in the state.

The result of their first-class winemaking talent and the unimpeachable terroir of the Hyde and Beresini Vineyards is one of the most exquisite and pedigreed Chardonnays that you’ll find in California. It’s also away one of the best you’ll ever see for less than three digits.

“I visited Romanée-Conti several years in the 80s and spent a good deal of time with the winemaker,” vintner Tor Kenward told us. “We essentially make our Chardonnay the exact same way.” Tor and Jeff ferment and age their Chardonnay in barrel, stirring the lees for creaminess, and bottling it unfined and unfiltered for body and character—and once you taste their exceptional 2019 Carneros Chardonnay, you’ll have no trouble tasting that lofty inspiration, not to mention the unparalleled vineyard pedigree. 

Medium gold in color, Tor and Jeff’s masterpiece swirls with intoxicating pineapple, quince, Meyer lemon, toast, clove, and freshly churned butter aromas upon opening. The tropical and tree-fruit flavors unfurl into a complex tapestry of five-spice, toast, clotted cream, and vanilla, showing density and concentration, but flawless balance and agility as well, thanks to the underlying freshness of acidity. The long and creamy finish leaves the palate primed for another sip.

There might be no vineyard names on the label, but Chardonnay fans should definitely know the names that make this bottle so spectacular. The first is Hyde, the storied vineyard that has graced some of the greatest Burgundian wines ever made in California. The second is Beresini. Both are part of the finest Chardonnay family tree imaginable. 

Even though Tor considers Larry Hyde a friend, he had to stand in line for Wente Clone small-berry Chardonnay from the Hyde Vineyard. He bothered Larry to no end, and eventually, in order to get some relief, Larry pointed Tor to his friend Steve Beresini—he had taken some of Larry’s Wente Chardonnay cuttings and planted a three-acre vineyard with them. 

Tor procured some of those grapes in 2010... and proceeded to make the finest Chardonnay of his life.  

In 2013, Tor finally accessed grapes from Larry Hyde’s Wente Block, and in 2019, scored an unexpected prize: grapes from Larry’s Calera block, which come from the vines that Josh Jensen, one of the Burgundian pioneers of California, planted on the Central Coast decades ago. That brought about a question: What to do with all the riches?  

“Neither Jeff nor I ever thought we would ever blend a Chardonnay from two vineyards, or different clones,” Tor told us. “It just isn’t something that winemakers do, as they would blend different Cabernets. The very best Chardonnays we have ever tasted have always been single vineyards and single clones. End of story.”

End of story—until the middle of 2020, when Tor and Jeff started tasting and blending. They found that all three Chardonnays (from the Wente and Calera Clones planted at the Hyde Vineyard, and Wente Clone from Beresini) stood on their own as exceptional expressions of Chardonnay. But the two winemakers decided to defy convention by selecting some of the best barrels to go into a Carneros Chardonnay. 

The result is a wine that they never thought they’d make—one that incorporates two impeccable clones from two sought-after vineyards, and amounts to what Tor calls, “one hell of a value in Chardonnay.”

Only 300 cases were made of this one-of-a-kind wine. We’re thrilled to be the ones to share our allocation with you.