The Judge 2017 is Kongsgaard's single-vineyard Chardonnay from the family's own hillside above the town of Napa. The Wine Advocate gave it 100 points, and it now has several years of bottle age.
About This Wine
The Wine Advocate's Lisa Perrotti-Brown described baked pineapple, green mango, apricot preserves and nutmeg, with sea spray, lime blossom, yuzu, almond croissant, crushed rocks and beeswax underneath, all charged with energy and ending in the vineyard's mineral signature. She put the drinking window at 2020 to 2034. Antonio Galloni, tasting earlier, found it powerful and rich but still tight and marked by some sulphur, which is typical of young Judge. With age, those reductive notes fade into nut and honey.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Baked pineapple, apricot and lime blossom with almond pastry, beeswax and crushed stone.
- Palate: Full-bodied and energetic, with tightly knit layers, creamy texture and a firm spine of acidity.
- Finish: Long, with a saline, mineral finish.
Serving & Food
Serve at 12 to 14°C in a large Burgundy glass. Decant for 30 to 45 minutes so the richness and mineral notes open up. It is in a good drinking window now. Lovely with lobster thermidor, turbot in beurre blanc or a roast capon.
How to Enjoy
A mature top-tier California white for a special seafood dinner.
Product Details
Producer: Kongsgaard
Country: USA
Region: Napa Valley, California
Cuvée: The Judge
Vintage: 2017
Grape Variety: Chardonnay
Volume: 750mL
About the Winery
The Judge vineyard sits on family land in the hills east of Napa, a shy-bearing hilltop that John's grandfather had once meant to use as a stone quarry. John and Maggy Kongsgaard planted it to Chardonnay in the 1970s, on the advice of their neighbour André Tchelistcheff.
The wine is named for John's father, a long-serving Napa County judge. Before 1996 the vineyard's fruit went into Newton's Chardonnay, where John was winemaker; when he and Maggy founded Kongsgaard that year, they took the grapes with them.