Neyers Vineyards Bruce's Journal
Neyers 2022 Carneros Chardonnay
By Bruce Neyers
Saturday 24th May, 2025
The 2022 Carneros District Chardonnay – Important news from the ‘Wine Spectator’
We were delighted recently to learn that our 2022 Chardonnay ‘Carneros District’ is included in an upcoming piece by the ‘Wine Spectator’, entitled:
“8 Delicious Chardonnays Up to 93 Points”
Under the heading of White Wine from Carneros, they write:
‘Farther south in Carneros, Neyers blended grapes from a few vineyards for its Chardonnay. The winemaking team aged about one-quarter of the wine in new French oak. The result is a white with salted butterscotch, nutmeg and ginger notes that mingle with intense, refreshing flavors of peach, apricot and dried pineapple.’
Those observations set the stage for their formal review:
Neyers 2022 Chardonnay Carneros District
‘An elegant white, displaying salted butterscotch, nutmeg and ginger notes that mingle with intense, refreshing flavors of peach, apricot and dried pineapple. Accents of green cardamom, nutmeg, and wildflower honey linger on the long finish, with fresh acidity. Drink now through 2036. 6614 cases made. 92 POINTS’ — Maryann Worobiec
We’ve been wildly enthusiastic about this bottling of our Carneros District Chardonnay since the grapes were harvested. It was a colder than normal growing season, and the small crop was hand-picked with near-ideal sugar and acid levels. The native wild-yeast fermentation in 60-gallon French Oak barrels lasted almost four months – always a good sign — followed by a natural malo-lactic fermentation. The finished wine is richly textured, yet bright, crisp and fresh. It’s unfined and only lightly filtered, so it retains all of the flavor nature intended. It’s loaded with pleasure, and well suited to any dish that calls for a complex white wine.
The El Novillero vineyard in the southwestern corner of Sonoma Carneros is owned by the Donnell family, and farmed by the Sangiacomo family. This long-time partnership between two of the area’s superstars has yielded a string of marvelous Chardonnay bottlings. Fruit from two lower blocks — visible in-part in this photo, looking to the northwest — went into the Neyers Winery bottling of 2022 Chardonnay ‘Carneros District’. The final blend includes grapes from the nearby Yamakawa Vineyard, southwest of the town of Sonoma, and the Sangiacomo’s Old Railroad Vineyard on Watmaugh Road.
Photo by Mike Pucci
Neyers Vineyards 2022 Carneros District Chardonnay label
We still have three months remaining in our rainy season, but we are already at 29″, based on our home weather station, with almost 3 more inches due this week. We average 36″ of rain annually, and the season to date figures give us every reason to be optimistic. This photo looks northeast across our vineyard parcel known as ‘Reservoir Block’. Barbara and I had the reservoir developed in 1986, after the lengthy application process with the CA State Water Resources Control Board. It holds approximately 8 acre-feet of water, some trapped from rainfall, and some taken from Conn Creek, which flows through our property at that first treeline. The water is used for drip irrigation and frost protection. The reservoir also serves as home to scores of Canadian Geese, a white egret or two, and the occasional Great Blue Heron.
Photo by Lizzie Neyers Mix
