Winemaker Notes
The 2024 Sonoma County Chardonnay presents a lovely toasted brioche aroma, with white peach, flower, and subtle pear notes. The palate offers a foundation of crème brûlée and bananas foster, layered with soft vanilla and nuanced pineapple juice on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Fresh and harmonious, with delicate layers of complexity, showing aromas of white flowers, golden and green apples, and a hint of vanilla. Light- to medium-bodied with a balance of richness, bright acidity and juicy-lemon flavors on the palate. A bit of lime zest and apple seeds in the finish.
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.
