For decades, some of California’s most respected winemakers have come to Hudson Ranch for Chardonnay. Hudson Estate’s own bottling is Lee Hudson’s expression of the land he has been planting, farming, and learning since 1981: one of Carneros’ celebrated vineyards, from the grower who has spent more than four decades with it. The 2023 brings together three distinct corners of Hudson Ranch: Ladybug, Little Bit and Seashell. Hudson approaches each block individually, based on the soil, climate, rootstock, and Chardonnay selection that shape its character. Low-yielding vines produce small clusters and berries before all three come together as one wine from the ranch. In the cellar, the Chardonnay is whole-cluster pressed, fermented with native yeast in French oak, then aged on its lees for 22 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. That extended élevage builds breadth and complexity around the wine’s natural freshness, with richness, tension and length.