Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Bright, lemon-gold in color with a pale green rim, the 2007 Chardonnay Lauren Estate delivers earthy/stony notes of crushed rocks and damp soil to begin, giving way to provocative apricot preserves, pear tart and almond croissant notes with hints of acacia honey, struck flint and woodsmoke. Concentrated with a lovely oiliness to the texture, the full-on, full-bodied palate is bold and spicy, delivering a refreshing lift on the long, multilayered finish. I love, love, love Aubert's Chardonnays when they are young, but this is absolutely why collectors should try and hold some back for a few years: it's so crazy good!
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Wine Spectator
Rich, smoky oak and creamy fig and melon flavors fold together nicely in this full-bodied beauty. Focused, complex and layered, ending with a long, elegant aftertaste.
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.