Talley Rincon Vineyard Chardonnay 2016
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wilfred
Wong -
James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Try pairing this Chardonnay with grilled chicken or salmon in a honey-soy glaze
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
It’s magical how Talley Chardonnays pack both subtlety and richness into the same package. This bottling starts with light aromas of honeysuckle, golden apple and brioche before intensifying into cashew, peach and tangerine. The palate surrounds caramelized peach and apple flavors yet is cut with lemony acidity and a chalky texture, finishing with light caramel and butter.
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Jeb Dunnuck
I also loved the 2016 Chardonnay Rincon Vineyard from the great vineyard in the Arroyo Grande Valley. This wine spent 15 months in 21% new French oak. It’s a concentrated, masculine, mineral-driven Chardonnay that has notes of salted citrus, caramelized stone fruits, and subtle iodine and marine notes. With good acidity, plenty of texture, and a great finish, it’s another rockingly good wine from this estate that will keep for at least 7-8 years.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Talley Chardonnays and the Arroyo Grande Valley are always a fine combination. The 2016 Talley Rincon Vineyard Chardonnay has often been one of my favorites from this AVA. TASTING NOTES: This wine is zippy and bright. Its aromas and flavors of green apples and tangy minerality should pair it nicely with Cantonese style Dungeness crab in a ginger and scallions sauce. (Tasted: August 13, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
The nose is quite dominated by the aromas of banoffee pie, butterscotch, vanilla and mango dessert, but it’s all presented evenly in a clean package. Full body, medium acidity and a textured finish. Drink now.
Other Vintages
2015-
Robert
Parker
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Connoisseurs'
Guide
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Connoisseurs'
Guide
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Wine &
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Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Spectator
Talley Vineyards is a family owned and operated winery that specializes in estate grown Chardonnay and Pinot Noir ideally suited for the climate and soils of the Arroyo Grande and Edna Valleys. The Talley’s farming history in the area dates to 1948 when Oliver Talley began growing vegetables in the Arroyo Grande Valley. Guided by this legacy and a commitment to long term sustainability, Talley Vineyards focuses on attention to detail in all aspects of farming and winemaking operations. The goal is to produce distinctive wines of consistently high quality that best express the unique character of each of the Talley family’s six vineyard sites in the two valleys.
Talley Vineyards is located in the Arroyo Grande Valley, seven miles east of the Pacific Ocean in San Luis Obispo County on California's South Central Coast. We are approximately halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and less than 10 minutes from Highway 101 in Arroyo Grande.
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 the coolest growing areas in California, the Arroyo Grande Valley runs from the southwest to the northeast, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Central Coast AVA. Situated so that cold Pacific Ocean air and fog is allowed to filter into the valley, Arroyo Grande also has an incredibly long growing season. Bud break occurs in February in most years with flowering in May and harvest in late September; the area is classified as cool Mediterranean.
These weather factors combined with the soil types—continental and marine rocks, greywacke, limestone, shale and volcanic—create wines with great concentration and fresh acidity. The cooler end of the valley is perfect for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and is a good producer of sparkling wines. The warmer, more inland part of the valley is home to some of California’s oldest Zinfandel vines.