Mer Soleil Silver Unoaked Chardonnay 2006
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This second vintage follows last year's successful debut of Silver, an effort to unite the crisp mineral essence of classic Chablis style with the tropical elements found in Chardonnay of the Pacific coastline.
Using Chardonnay grown in special blocks of the Mer Soleil Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County, we harvested the grapes when just fully ripe, their gold color hued with green, expressing clean aromas of Chardonnay fruit and firm acidity.
The result is our latest presentation of a Chardonnay we consider as sleek and cool as Silver.
-Charlie Wagner II, Winemaker
This unoaked Chardonnay is a light gold color with a pale green tint. Clean, lively aromas of honeydew melon and green apple carry over to delicate tropical fruit flavors of pineapple and papaya, balanced with crisp mineral.
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Probably the most expensive unoaked Chard out there, this is a stunning wine, showing the laserlike purity and bright acids that this northwestern part of the Highlands coaxes from the grapes. The brilliantly illuminated flavors range from limes and kiwis to green apples, peaches and guavas. The finish is dry, but with a honeyed unctuousness that could be a touch of botrytis.
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Mer Soleil began in the late 1980s, with a journey to the central coast of California in search of ideal conditions to plant Chardonnay. Our first vineyards were in the Santa Lucia Highlands, a small but exceptional appellation about a 30-minute drive from Monterey. With morning fog, bright sunshine and howling gusts of afternoon wind, the region’s dramatic weather leads to an extended growing season, enabling us to make wines with distinctive aromas and flavors.
In addition to our Reserve Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands, we recently introduced a Reserve Pinot Noir, also from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Our SILVER unoaked Chardonnay comes from Monterey County – it is fermented and aged in a combination of stainless steel and concrete tanks. Mer Soleil is led by Owner and Winemaker Charlie Wagner, who is passionate about how these wines celebrate the remarkable landscape and character of the Santa Lucia Highlands and Monterey coast.
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.
The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.
Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.
While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.