2001 Kistler Camp Meeting Ridge Chardonnay

We drank this 2001 Kistler Camp Meeting Ridge Chardonnay with our friend last week. The first thing we noticed was that it was very yellow. This is not a good sign for white wines because it speaks of oxidation or sherry notes and since this wine is now 15 years old, this is not unexpected. The first thing I sensed was a brioche kind of bouquet but when I tasted it, the wine was lemony with a good bit of acidity and was a very full bodied wine. All in all, it went very well with the Chilean sea bass that my husband made with olive oil, butter and capers. My friend enjoyed the Kistler because it she is a Kistler fan. Sadly, while we have a few more Kistlers from this era, it is the last one that we have from this vineyard.
While looking on the Internet, I found this article on The Pinotfile called Kistler Vineyards Pinot Noir Tasting. Since we are trying to navigate our way through marketing, I found this paragraph to be interesting and funny. I read it aloud to my husband and asked him to guess whose marketing strategy this is:
        The winery is not open to the public, there is no tasting room, the wines         are not poured for tasting at any public wine event or winemaker dinner         sponsored by the winery. The wines are only submitted to two wine critics         for review, Robert Parker and Stephen Tanzer (Parker’s scores are usually         higher!), who both visit the winery annually. The winery was one of the few         not included in John Winthrop Haeger’s compendium, North American         Pinot Noir, because the winery opted out. The winery does not belong to         its appellation winegrowers association. A winery website did not appear         until 2005 although the winery was founded over 30 years ago. The wines         are sold primarily to consumers through a mailing list based on years of         customer loyalty and volume of customer purchases. Minimum purchase         is a case of wine with each offering (there is a spring and fall offering),         which with tax and shipping can easily top $1,000. If you don’t buy, your         allocation will quickly dwindle until you are unceremoniously dropped from         the mailing list. Is this anyway to operate a winery in today’s competitive         wine business?
My husband could not guess and only shook his head. I love this strategy! But being realistic, it probably won't work for us.