Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of chalk, stones, lemons and limes with some gunmetal and orange peel. It’s medium-bodied with a tight palate. Searing acidity gives energy and drive to the lightly chewy finish. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Chardonnay Hyland Vineyard pours a bright, green-tinged yellow and is a clear step up from the 2022. The nose reveals minty lift, ginger, brighter spice, and green apples. Full-bodied, it has brighter acidity and more focused vertical drive than the 2022, with a afleshy apple skin texture that adds great structure to the palate, impressive length, and a crisp lift on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay Hyland has slowly unfurling scents of lemon peel, red apple, white peach and saline, and its oak spice is well integrated. The medium-bodied palate is focused and chiseled with understated, flinty flavors and a very long, spicy finish. It unfurls dramatically with air and will benefit from time in the cellar.
Rating: 93+
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.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.