{"product_id":"kalin-cellars-livermore-valley-chardonnay-cuvee-w-1999","title":"Kalin Cellars, Livermore Valley Chardonnay Cuvee W, 1999","description":"A 1999 California Chardonnay only now arriving on shelves — and that's exactly as its makers intended. Terry and Frances Leighton, both microbiologists, founded Kalin Cellars in 1977 and made a habit of holding bottles back for a decade or more after harvest, releasing them only when they judged the wine had reached the start of its drinking window. While 1990s California was busy with big, buttery crowd-pleasers, they were chasing umami and savory depth: slow-fermenting yeasts, long sur lie maturation, extended barrel aging, minimal intervention. Cuvée W is 100% Chardonnay from the Wente Estate Vineyards just outside Livermore, planted to the original Wente clone that John Wente brought back from Burgundy at the start of the twentieth century — cuttings taken from Louis Latour's Corton-Charlemagne vines, which tells you something about the ambition here. The old vines (50–60 years) sit on iron-rich clay, farmed lutte raisonnée, and fermentation, malolactic conversion and sur lie aging all happen in small oak barrels, half of them new. For anyone who thinks California Chardonnay can't age, this is the rebuttal, and it comes with more than two decades already behind it.","brand":"Martine's (T. Elen) [MRTNS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50526149967929,"sku":"NYC-W-MRTNS-`KALI-CHCW-99`-092226-313","price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0125\/1518\/0601\/files\/IMG-4600.jpg?v=1790208368","url":"https:\/\/nyc.flatiron-wines.com\/products\/kalin-cellars-livermore-valley-chardonnay-cuvee-w-1999","provider":"Flatiron Wines \u0026 Spirits NYC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}