Medium straw yellow, green hints, day bright. Medium plus intensity with vanillin, lemon custard, yellow apples and tropical fruit. Medium plus body, medium plus intensity and medium acidity. Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanillin(new French oak), lemons and apples. Balanced, must like new oak. 88pts.

From 08/21/05

Medium straw, light green hints, day bright. Medium plus intense nose of popcorn, buttered toast, vanillin and lemon custard. Medium plus intensity, medium body and medium acid. Vanillin, baking spices, popcorn and a little heats. Long finish. 87pts.

From 08/27/05

Straw yellow, green hints, star bright. Medium nose of toasty oak, butterscotch, yellow apples, cinnamon and nutmeg. Medium plus body, medium plus concentration, medium acidity. Baking spices, oak, caramel, baked red apples and pears, light lemon. Palate is so dominated by oak that this is not pleasant and is a little hot on the finish. 87pts.

Not a big fan. Not sure if it's because this was bottle 32347 of 32652, or what, but fruit was all but gone, leaving very, very subtle flavors. Tried with linguini and clams (even used 1/2 cup for the recipe) and it just wasn't firing on all cylinders. For $60,a bottle, I'd rather buy 2 Peter Michaels than 3 of these... I gave it 87, which really irks me, given the cost.

FWIW - I agree with this 100%, and think the oak is even more pronounced now. -
>> Palate is so dominated by oak that this is not pleasant and is a little hot on the finish

Drew... might be a bad bottle. It doesn't sound like ANY Kistler I've ever had... except for a few corked ones.

*shrug* it definitely wasn't like the 03 Vine Hill... I really don't think it was corked, though. Just ho-hum? I've kept it in the fridge since release, with the exception of the trip back east, which I really don't think affected it. I bought quite a few of the 02 and 03's, and this was, by far, the worst showing of the chards.

The McCrea is supposed to be Chablis like, sounds more like a bad Meursault. I got a few of these and was hoping they'd age gracefully, like a good Chablis. Doesn't sound like that's gonna happen.

So in the name of science research, I decanted this for an hour and pretty much had the same conclusion. Went to a kiddie Halloween carnival and came home, popped and poured a 2001 McCrea....much better. And no, it wasn't the post kid scene making the 2001 taste better.