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Buy OnlineWinery notes (2020 Vintage)
"Named for the golden hills of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range that frames our family-owned San Bernabe Vineyard in Monterey, Diora is inspired from “d’Or,” the French phrase meaning “golden” and bestowed on beautiful, sun-filled regions. No effort has been spared along Diora’s 30-year journey from vineyard-to-bottle. The result is an expressive Chardonnay overflowing with flavour, depth and personality and a devotion to indulgence.
This Chardonnay has a beautiful, pale golden hue with tropical aromas of pineapple that mingle with toasted oak and hints of ripe apricot, creme brûlée and pear. The delicate flavours of crème brûlée in this white wine give way to lovely notes of key lime, white peach, and marshmallow in a medium-bodied mouthfeel.
Our veteran winemaker, James Ewart, oversees the team and the small-lot winery built in the vineyard. We picked our blocks when the fruit was fully ripe, and each was kept separate, and all were 100% barrel fermented. ~45 % new oak was used for primary and secondary fermentation. After nine months of aging the wine was racked and put back into oak barrels (predominantly French oak) where it spent another five months before final blending. After the wines finished alcoholic fermentation, the wines underwent a malolactic fermentation and were stirred every two weeks which helps soften and round out the wine and provide buttery characters.
This wine was aged for ~fourteen months in predominantly French barrels creating nice weight on the palate. The Damy Vosges long-toast barrels gives the wine nice length with slight toasty notes. The Cadus barrels gives the wine nice vanilla sweetness and depth. About 45% were new oak barrels and the remainder of the wine was barrel fermented in 1+ years seasoned barrels so the fruit aromas were not overwhelmed by new oak."
5 Stars & 95/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Febraury 2023 (2020 Vintage)
"Immensely complex and engaging, the wine shows mango, cedary oak, French vanilla, sweet pastry and subtle toffee notes on the nose, followed by a concentrated palate offering fleshy texture and beautifully melded acidity. It's multi-layered and expansive with an impressively long satisfying finish. At its best: now to 2032."
90/100 Wine Enthusiast (2020 Vintage)
"Baked apple, toasted nuts and oak aromas make for a familiar nose on this bottling. The palate is creamy in texture and loaded with butter and sea-salt richness, as a lemony apple fruit character holds the midpalate."
