THE WINE NEWS
Rating: 90
Perfumed aromas of lime and refreshing minerals. Flavors of stone fruit, beeswax and butter are riper than suggested by the nose. Honey notes gently sweeten the finish. (October/November 2007)

Wine Enthusiast
Rating: 87
Here’s a rich Chardonnay with tropical fruit pastry flavors that have a dusty, dried herb edge, and lots of creamy oak. The wine is a bit soft. The fruit and spice flavors reprise on the long-lasting finish. (December 15, 2006)

Anthony Dias Blue, Patterson's Beverage Journal
Best in Show
Toasty and crisp with savory fruit and decent structure; persistent, vivacious and balanced. (September 2006)

California Grapevine
Recommended
Medium-light golden yellow; attractive, intense, spicy, toasty, cedary, ripe tropical fruit aroma with overtones of charred oak; full body; rich, plush, toasty spiced apple flavors with a tight center core; lingering aftertaste. (August/September 2006)

Taste California Travel
Big wine, but balanced. Flavors of apple and stone fruit with a little toastiness and creaminess toward the finish. It's pricey, but it deserves to be considered in that very top echelon on California Chardonnays. Pair with richer poultry dishes. Could be especially appropriate with veal in cream sauces. ( January 28, 2005)

The Wine News
California’s Best of 2003. (December 2003)

Wine Spectator
Rating: 87
A rich, exotic style, with a beam of citrus woven through ripe fig and apricot flavors, turning a little flabby on the finish. Drink now through 2006. ( December 15, 2003)

Wine Enthusiast
Rating: 87
Made in Clos Du Val’s restrained style, this is a sleek, tight young wine. It has intense and concentrated flavors of citrus fruits that veer into apples and not-quite-ripe peaches, and is well oaked, with bright acidity. Seems designed to be a food wine, and may develop with a few years in the bottle. ( December 15, 2003)

Colorado Wine News
Spent 10 months in French oak, 75% new, and shows mineral, oak, pear, butter, apple, and lemon oil on the nose. Big-bodied and fresh with flavors of the same accented lightly with an oak finish medium-broad and medium-long. Well integrated, structured, and balanced and with good depth, it needs two years to develop and open. Very nice, very Carneros. (October – December 2003)

The Wine Investor
Medium yellow light. Baked apple and vanillin with citrus accents in the nose. Rich texture, solid with some tannin. Flavors track the nose; good depth and a lingering finish.—(October 2003)

The Calgary Sun
Clos Du Val, a perfect little estate on the Silverado Trail that crafts the most gorgeous French-style reds in the Valley. The workers in the tasting room make any trip to Napa worthwhile. They are friendly, knowledgable and eager to please. When we tell them we’re from Calgary, two places are immediately cleared and bottles appear from everywhere. The place is rockin’ with the…2000 Reserve Chard (pear, peach and rich vanilla)…( July 20, 2003

California Grapevine
Rating: Highly Recommended
Medium golden yellow; initially subdued, herbal, toasty, tropical fruit aroma that developed with airing in the glass; full body; big, tight, pear and green apple flavors; lingering aftertaste. Seemed tight and withdrawn, needing some bottle aging. (August/September 2002)

Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine
Rating: 91 points
Showing its provenance in its narrow but nicely fruited aromas that feature notes of citrus, green apple and a mild sprinkling of roasted grains, the wine opens up in the mouth with a fair bit of flesh to go with its citrus-tinged, slightly toasty flavors. Long and somewhat lean at the finish, but with an overlying richness, this is a wine that will be at home with a variety of seafood in rich and tangy sauces. (October 1, 2002)

Wine Enthusiast
Rating: 92 points
Made in the house style, which emphasizes elegantly restrained fruit and higher acids. Still, this is a big, lush wine. The flavors veer toward peaches, while the oak-and-lees overlay in powerful and creamy. The finish is long and spicy. (October 1, 2002)