Winemaker Notes
This wine offers notes of mandarin orange, citrus blossom, crystallized ginger, marmalade and hints of yeasty sourdough. Those flavors carry onto a balanced palate that offers wonderful purity, tension and length.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of citrus and flowers, with a concentrated palate and bright acidity. Light- to medium-bodied with notes of sliced lemons and honeysuckle. Ends with a tangy and refreshing finish. This is an enjoyable and interesting wine that sees approximately 25% new oak.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chardonnay Willamette Valley has savory scents of honey, nuts, toasted meringue and spice accenting a core of peach and quince paste. The light-bodied palate offers understated fruit and a soft, satiny texture, and its focused acidity gives the finish an ethereal feel. It's very easy to drink without sacrificing nuance.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a ripe yellow hue, the ripe and juicy 2021 Chardonnay Willamette Valley is forward with aromas of honeysuckle, ripe pear, and lemon custard. Full-bodied and generous, with a creamy texture and notes of vanilla oak spices lasting on the finish, it’s a seductive style to drink over the next few years.
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Wine Spectator
Fragrant and expressive, with vibrant citrus and white nectarine flavors. Picks up speed toward the snappy finish. Drink now. 270 cases made.
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.