Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay Katherine's Vineyard is rich yet energized, driven by taut minerality and juicy acidity. Barrel spice and ripe orchard fruit marry in harmony, with serious complexity, deep minerality and impressive finesse, especially for the price.
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Wine Enthusiast
Lemon balm, baked apricot and macadamia nut aromas converge on the appealing nose of this bottling. There's a blast of acidity that cuts into the lightly salted core of pear, apple and citrus peel flavors, with a warm oak note carrying the finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
ased on 100% Chardonnay, the 2023 Chardonnay Katherine's Vineyard offers ripe stone and orchard fruits intermixed with honeysuckle and subtle spice. It’s medium-bodied, plush, round, and supple. Fermentation was split between 30% stainless steel and 70% barrel, and the wine was then aged seven months in French oak, 20% of which was new. This is a well-made, ready-to-drink California Chardonnay that delivers terrific value.
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Wine Spectator
Shows remarkable seamlessness and complexity, with flavors of lemon blossoms, orange sherbet, papaya and marmalade. A fresh thread of acidity leaves a terrific impression on the finish, along with lemon verbena and fresh ginger notes that show a hint of marzipan.
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.
A lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.