Les Noisetiers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, Kistler Vineyards, 2024
THE WINERY: KISTLER
Kistler is one of the true benchmark names in American Chardonnay — a family-owned estate founded in 1978 by Steve Kistler, built from the outset on a conviction that Sonoma could produce whites to rival white Burgundy, given the right sites and the right restraint. Nearly all of Kistler's Chardonnay descends from a single proprietary selection of Wente clone material, sourced from a Larry Hyde block in the early 1980s — genetic material that's since become something of a house signature across the range. Steve's daughter Catherine now works alongside winemaker Jason Kesner, continuing a hands-off, Burgundian-inspired approach: native-yeast fermentation, French oak, unfined and unfiltered bottling, and an unwavering focus on letting individual vineyard sites speak for themselves.
THE WINE: LES NOISETIERS
Les Noisetiers — French for "the hazelnut trees" — takes its name from the toasted hazelnut character Kistler finds, vintage after vintage, in the fruit from its western Sonoma Coast sites. Unlike Kistler's single-vineyard bottlings, this is a deliberately appellation-focused cuvée, blended from several estate vineyards on the sandy Goldridge soils around the winery — principally Vine Hill, Trenton Roadhouse, Dutton Ranch and Laguna Ridge — built to show the mineral-driven regional character of western Sonoma rather than one site in isolation.
The fruit is hand-harvested at night to preserve freshness, whole clusters gently pressed on an unusually slow, two-hour "Champagne" program, then moved directly to barrel on its fine lees without cold settling — fermentation driven entirely by native yeasts. After a full malolactic fermentation, the wine spends eleven months in barrel with no bâtonnage, followed by three months in tank before bottling, unfined and unfiltered. A smaller percentage of new oak than Kistler uses elsewhere in the range keeps the focus on soil rather than wood — the source of the rare mineral clarity this wine is known for in New World Chardonnay.
Serve: Lightly chilled, in a full-bodied white wine glass — this has the structure and richness to stand up to roast chicken, lobster, or a truffle-based dish, alongside the classic buttery-Chardonnay pairings.