Winemaker Notes
Crafted from the finest barrels of 00 Wines' micro-lot Chardonnay from a high elevation Eola-Amity Hills Vineyard. A barrel selection of the Richard Hermann Cuvée with extended elevage in oak.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plenty of sliced citrus fruit with some matchstick and iron character. It’s medium-bodied with a focused, compacted center palate that shows stony flavors with cooked apples and lemon tart. Long and complex. Give this time to open, but it’s already very impressive.
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay Freya Hermann Cuvée is packed with personality and tension. A beguiling bouquet of smoky crushed rocks and cardamom mingles with intense aromas of ginger-tinged nectarine and dusty dried flowers. The 2023 rushes across the palate with poise and prominence, youthfully dense and compact. A stimulating core of acid and minerals complicates an array of flint-infused orchard fruits. Long and structured, the 2023 leaves a saline resonance and a cascade of florals, lingering long with a sensation of liquid stone and minty top notes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay Freya Hermann Cuvée has dynamic aromas of flint, peach, elderflower, saline and soft, creamy undertones. The medium-bodied palate is youthfully coiled with understated, flinty flavors. It has a satiny texture, refreshing acidity and a long, mineral-driven finish. Rating: 94+
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.