Stature Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2020
The Camelot vineyard brings lush, opulent pineapple, mango and papaya to the Stature Chardonnay’s bouquet with a creamy richness finishing on the palate. The Neely vineyard offers the floral honeysuckle notes that add aromatically elegant layers.
Acclaim
92 points, Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com, August 2022
The 2020 Chardonnay Stature is highly aromatic and floral with jasmine, ripe cantaloupe, and lemon candy. The full and luxuriously rich palate delivers notes of lemon confit and ripe apple as well as a long finish. Drink over the next 8 years.
2019 Vintage
94 points, Matt Kettman, Wine Enthusiast, Nov. 2021
There’s a detailed softness to the nose of this bottling, ranging from warm butter and cake batter aromas to lemon zest and egg souffle. The palate is much more firm and vibrant, offering sharp lime and grapefruit, a chiseled structure and then warmer flavors of toasted nut toward the acid-washed finish.
2018 Vintage
95 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous, Jan 2020
The 2018 Chardonnay Stature is fabulous. Rich, creamy and super-elegant, the 2018 is one of the best wines I have tasted from Kendall-Jackson. The wine's balance is just unreal. The 2018 is ample, deep and layered, but also light on its feet.
2017 Vintage
93 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous, May 2019
The 2017 Chardonnay Stature is a very pretty and expressive wine. Tangerine peel, spice, vanilla and butter notes are all laced together. Supple and racy in the glass, with attractive exotic overtones, the Stature is impeccably balanced in this vintage.
Winemaking
After a challenging season that resulted in a distinctly rich and intriguing wine profile, the harvest was handpicked and kept lot-separated throughout production. The Lees were stirred every two weeks by hand with a precise seven strokes of the dodine tool each time. Eight unique barrels among a peer group of very beautiful 2020 wines begged to be shown to the world. These profoundly complex Chardonnays beamed with quality and individuality that expressed the essence of their terroir.
Vineyards
Much of Santa Barbara County’s reputation for bold Burgundy-style varietals can be attributed to the unique combination of long hangtimes in protracted growing seasons, cold nights all summer retaining perfect acidity and balance, and the benchland soils delivering minerality under low vigor. The Neely vineyard is in the eastern hills above Los Alamos, and the Camelot vineyard is on the northern slope of the Santa Maria Valley with a perfect East-West row direction insuring impeccable ripening. Sedimentary rock with small pieces of calcium carbonate and limestone outline their soils, guaranteeing great drainage and expressive wines
