2014 Chardonnay Casteel 1.5L
Our family name on this reserve Chardonnay is our license to choose our personal favorite lots from the vintage and give them the luxury of a long slow fermentation in barrique, yielding a wine of purity and freshness with outstanding structure and concentration. In 2014 the wine came from a single lot, our Bethel Heights Vineyard Dijon selection 76, planted 1994. It has served as the lone constant for this wine since 2011, providing outstanding purity and freshness.
The 2014 Vintage
From the very beginning, this vintage was the warmest on record at Bethel Heights in all our thirty-five years here. The crop size was way above average, but we decided to thin very little, leaving a larger than usual crop on the vines to slow things down, hedging against too rapid sugar accumulation and premature ripening in such a warm vintage. The soil was well charged with water from winter rain, so the vines were green and healthy until mid-September harvest, and able to ripen the crop to full maturity.
92 points, The Wine Advocate
"The 2014 Chardonnay Casteel Reserve showed great depth and intensity. It has a perfumed nose of white flowers and melted candle wax, very well defined with lime and frangipane aromas developing. The palate is well balanced with a crisp, citrus lemon and lime-driven opening...Tasting through their 2014s and a couple of early-bottled 2015 whites, Bethel Heights once again proved that they are one of the few Oregon producers to offer exemplary wines of both colors." --Neal Martin
