Santa Barbara County

White

After I tasted this wine for the first time (in 2012; it was the 2010 vintage), my view of California Chardonnay changed irredeemably. No flaccid California butterball here. Diatom’s
Miya (the name means ‘beautiful night’ in Japanese) is as precise, powerful, and pent-up as a wave about to break in the early evening sea. Winemaker Greg Brewer says he is motivated by ‘negative space’, ‘the movement of the restricted voice’, and a ‘dread for the explicit’. This is not conventional California winespeak, to be sure. But few words are needed anyway. In this case, the wine actually does say it all.

Diatom, Miya Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, Sta Rita Hills, California, USA, 2011

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