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2003 CHARDONNAY CLOS PEPE
Santa Rita Hills

We just did a tasting of the 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 and the 2004 (from barrel) chardonnays that we made from Clos Pepe vineyard. Doing tastings of chardonnay can be tiresome, but this group of wines was anything but dull. All are fresh and all can easily age and improve for some time. They are intriguing and interesting to drink and none of them really taste like California chardonnay, which so often is heavy. I may have said that the 2002 was the best chardonnay we had ever made, so I won't tell you the same thing about the 2003, but it is lively and delicious now. (FYI, the 2002 has tightened up and will be much more interesting to drink again in a couple more years. If you have any of the 1999 or 2000, try them-they are tasting great.)