Winemaker Notes
Lovely aromas of apricot, lavender and caramel ebb into bright flavors of lemon/ lime, and a fresh, spicy finish with vanilla, clove and honeydew melon. The richness and texture are increasing in the bottle.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Lovely and inviting aromas of sea salt, light butter, lemon zest and toasted almond conspire for a slyly rich nose on this bottling. Those warm elements are cut by a pithy tension on the palate, which frames blanched almond, butter-glazed nectarine and salted citrus flavors.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another gem, the 2019 Chardonnay Nuits-Blanches Au Bouge comes from a mix of Bien Nacido and Le Bon Climat vineyards (it’s mostly Bien Nacido) and was fermented and aged all in new French oak. It sports a medium gold hue to go with textbook Chardonnay notes of ripe stone fruits, caramelized lemons, chalky minerality, and toasted spice. Brought up in new barrels, it's medium-bodied and balanced, with a great mid-palate as well as impressive length. A brilliant Chardonnay from this team, it’s well worth seeking out.
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Wine & Spirits
A relatively late Bien Nacido pick, aged in new François Frères barrels, this 2019 Nuits-Blanches is hedonistic in its early life, with powerful oak influencing the caramel apple and lactic scents, as well as the flavors of taffy and pineapple. However, through all this youthful excess there’s salinity and a current of acidity coursing the wine; taken together, they provide an insurance policy for the wine’s future. Convey it to the cellar and don’t touch it for three years.
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.