2009 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Carneros

As David Ramey's winery continues to expand he has outgrown his downtown Healdsburg facility and recently set up another one, not far away and on the south side of town. Ramey mused about the market's (and wine critics') obsession with single-site bottlings, saying that it "detracts from and diminishes the fact that plenty of blended, appellation wines are made from incredibly high-quality fruit from the best sites in the region." The perceived exclusivity and assumed rarity of single-vineyard wines blind people to the virtues of the so-called little wines in the range, which Ramey believes is unfair. He told me that the longer he works with syrah, the more he realizes that it needs to be treated like pinot, not cabernet, which is how he used to look at the variety. "Cabernet is mostly about working with the tannins but syrah really needs a lighter hand to show its best."