Quails’ Gate Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay 2022

The chardonnay summit is reached with Quails’ Gate’s signature release, a.k.a. the Stewart Family Reserve made with fruit from the chosen sites, meaning best and oldest vineyards in the Okanagan Valley. Volcanic soils of Mt. Boucherie are key in this top shelf chardonnay, whole-cluster pressed and aged for 10 months in a mixture of 35 percent new and (65) neutral French oak. Bâtonnage is carried out, as with all the chardonnay, to effect a texture commiserate with the QG style and no other Okanagan estate expresses this specificity. Close maybe, but not precisely like the kinship of these chardonnay and the family resemblance is uncanny. The vintage is really quite ideal for the SFR. Stock up on 2022s folks – They are the cream that rises to the top for great producers who face greater challenges in too many unfair Okanagan vintages. Drink 2024-2029. Tasted October 2024. Score – 94. (Michael Godel, winealign.com)