PRODUCER: Hudson Vineyards
REGION: Napa Valley
WINEMAKERS: Lee Hudson, Andrew Holve
Even if you don’t know the name Hudson Vineyards, you’ll be familiar with its influence in supplying grapes to some of the most prestigious wineries in California. While the estate grows a range of varieties it is fair to say Chardonnay is their speciality. Amongst its long-term contracts, it supplies fruit to a stellar line-up of producers including Kongsgaard, Aubert and Kistler. Indeed Kistler says that their Hudson Chardonnay is their most sought-after wine.
WINERY HISTORY
A native Texan with a love of plants, Lee Hudson studied horticulture at the University of Arizona, discovered vineyards during a 1973 visit to California, interned at Domaine Dujac, and returned to the States to continue his graduate studies in viticulture and oenology at UC Davis, where many of his classmates are now his clients. Lee searched for property from Santa Barbara to Mendocino, before stumbling across the two-thousand-acre Carneros property in Napa Valley, founding Hudson Vineyards in 1981.
VITICULTURE & WINEMAKING
Hudson has two hundred acres of vineyards, along with heritage breed lambs, pigs and chickens, olives, and an array of seasonal vegetables: biodiversity is important to them. They spread six hundred tons of home-produced compost throughout the property annually and employ permanent cover crops of bell beans, oats and peas, attracting a wide variety of beneficial insects to the entire property.
The same Heritage shot-Wente clone (very small berries) is used across the estate. All the Chardonnays are whole-cluster pressed and barrel-fermented with native yeasts.
After more than forty years after its establishment Hudson Vineyards is indisputably one of the most prestigious sources of grapes in the Napa Valley, supplying fruit to a stellar line-up of wineries.
Winemaker Andrew Holve joined Hudson in 2024 and works alongside Lee and Cristina Salas-Porras Hudson (Lee's wife and estate's co-owner), CEO Peter Willmert, and closely collaborates with John Kongsgaard, Hudson's founding winemaker and consulting winemaker.
If California had a vineyard classification system, Hudson would without doubt be among those to class as a Grand Cru: their wines epitomise classic Californian Chardonnay at its best, lushness and opulence matched by exceptional balance.
GRAPE VARIETIES
Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Grenache Noir and Syrah.
