2020 Chardonnay Sugar Shack

This is a tremendous set of 2021s from Mark Aubert. The Chardonnays, which I tasted from tank prior to bottling, are marvelously precise and nuanced. Every wine is so well-defined. The Pinots might be even more impressive, though, recent changes in farming and winemaking, plus probably some vintage effect, yielded rich and vibrant wines but less heavy and oak-driven than in the past. Aubert describes 2021 as a year with good spring rainfall, no significant heat waves and yields in a normal range of 2.5-3.5 tons per acre. That might sound pretty unexceptional. The wines are anything but.

As has been the case the last few years, I also tasted a few older vintages for a separate report. For now, readers who have access to Aubert Chardonnays from magnum should jump on that opportunity, as the big bottle seems to be especially well suited to these wines, especially at the ten-year-plus stage. Two thousand twenty-one is one of my favorite recent vintages at Aubert.

In addition to tasting the 2021s from tank, I also had a chance to revisit the 2020s from bottle during my most recent visit, which I think is important for understanding the finished wines and something I have been doing here on a regular basis for more than a decade. (I note the bottled 2019s escaped me in the post-Covid return to travel). The bottled 2020s show the limits of the vintage, even in the hands of one of California’s most inspired producers.

There is no getting around the huge challenges of 2020. Two massive fires created overwhelming problems. Mark Aubert reported that his Chardonnays all reached his desired level of ripeness. I tasted the Chardonnays from tank prior to bottling and found the wines to show some varying degrees of angularity, with the exception of the Lauren. Perhaps that will sort itself out in bottle. We will see. The differences between sites, one of the things that makes these wines so distinctive, is not as evident in the 2020s as it usually is. Readers should note that there is no Eastside Chardonnay. The Hudson fell victim to frost, yet another headache in 2020. Aubert decided not to bottle his vineyard designate Pinots and instead used the best lots for appellation wines that I did not taste.