Hyde de Villaine ChardonnayV

Wine Notes

Hyde de Villaine (HdV) brings together the Hyde family, represented by renowned Californian viticulturist Larry Hyde and the de Villaines. Pamela and Aubert de Villaine pioneered their own Domaine de Villaine in Bouzeron and of course Aubert is best known for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Vosne-Romanée. Pamela de Villainkey to the original partnership. She is Larry Hyde’s cousin. Together Aubert and Larry aim to produce wines which have a sense of place, proudly Californian, certainly, but offering elegance rather than muscle.

Shimmering pale gold straw, this is unusually subdued on the nose, though with obvious underlying richness held in check. Quite restrained, with just hints of an orchard fruit medley, warm pastries and vanilla ice cream, there are shades of lime zest for refreshment. On agitation, with warming a little, the wine becomes much more expressive, opening up to provide a combination of tropical and citrus fruit, laced with honey and vanilla – hints of pain aux raisins with associated spice – a sensational wine.