Silver Mountain Vineyards

Yowza! This is a Chardonnay with a melodious voice with which to sing. A very well-endowed opera diva, this wine will command your attention and hold it steadfast. 2004 brought a very hot August to the Santa Cruz Mountains, and a lot of fruit ripened more rapidly than in previous years. This wine, made from the Mount Eden clone of Chardonnay, which tends to have very small berry clusters and low yields (barely 1 to 2 tons per acre), shows what a little heat can do. Rich tropical fruits and enormous baked pear aromas truly do leap out of the glass. The 2004 Silver Mountain Organic Chardonnay smells so rich and intense it’s close to overpowering. Kind of like a soprano solo at full volume inside a car too small for the Blaupunkt speakers.

On the palate, it delivers flavors of ripe, buttery apricot tart, glazed with honey and topped with lemony creme fraîche. There’s rich and juicy pear, and ripe melon on the mid-palate. The finish is quite tropical, oozing with mangoes, pineapple and lots of creamy vanilla nuttiness from the wood. The wine was whole cluster pressed and fermented with three different yeasts to bring out the complexity. Eleven months of barrel age in a mix of French and Eastern European oak, with frequent lees stirring, adds to the rich and complex mouthfeel.

Reviewed August 23, 2007 by Laura Ness.

Other Awards & Accolades

Silver Medal - 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
Bronze Medal - 2008 Dallas Morning News Wine Competition