These are Santa Cruz Mountain Chardonnays from the Mount Eden Estate. This property has a very complicated history of owners and winemakers, and a least part of it was planted by Martin Ray before he lost it in legal battles.
There can be extreme variations in many Santa Cruz Mountain wines from year to year. When everything is right, Mount Eden can produce one of the top Chardonnys of California. Other years produced somewhat unbalanced, overpriced wines.
The 1989 is now rather full golden. It has considerable fruit still, but too much oak is showing through and it is a bit flat and heavy. It was better a few years ago, but not one of Mount Eden's better efforts.
On the other hand, the 1990 is one of the best California Chardonnays I have had in a long time. It is still quite fresh and probably will hold well for several more years. It is a rather light lemon color. There is refined fruit with hints of white peaches and apricots. There is enough acid, not too much oak, and everything is in perfect balance. It is as close to a top Puligny Montrachet as I have seen from California. It is a pity that Mount Eden can not make a wine such as this most of the time.
Mount Eden and Au Bon Climat are among the very few California firms that can produce a Chardonnay that can improve for over 10 years. I have found Au Bon Climat to be considerably more consistent in their reserve Chardonnays. However, when conditions are right, Mount Eden can produce a wine as good or better than Au Bon Climat, in a different sort of way. I find a top Mount Eden to be more Puligny-Montrachet-like, while a top Au Bon Climat tends to be more Corton-Charlemagne-like, with more mineral character. Both often need several years of age and may not show well when tasted young if you do not know how these wines can develop.
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