Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast comes about 48% from the Russian River Valley. It was mostly barrel fermented and aged about eight months in 18% new oak. It surprises with its freshness and restraint. The nose is scented of toast, candle smoke, white peach and poached pears with accents of hay and honeysuckle. It's medium-bodied with a slightly creamy texture and great flavor intensity, refreshed by juicy acidity and finishing long and toasty. This is an incredible value—well made, balanced and tasty. 530,000 cases produced.
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.