Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Flirting with perfection is the 2014 Chardonnay Lauren Estate, from 16-year-old vines, which offers great extract, richness, and plenty of honeysuckle, tropical fruit and citrus oil. The wine, showing its concentration because of the drought year, should easily last 12-15 years.
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Vinous
The 2014 Chardonnay Lauren is once again the star in this range. I have done this tasting enough times not to be surprised. The layers and dynamic energy in this wine are just unreal. There's a lot of everything, too much of nothing and simply fabulous balance. Lemon confit, white flowers, mint, tangerine oil and chamomile build beautifully.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and graceful, offering rich, elegant flavors, with subtle shades of peach, nectarine, honeydew, tangerine and light oak. Impressive for the juicy aftertaste and lingering presence. Drink now.
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.