Winemaker Notes
Our 2007 Monterey Chardonnay is assembled from specially selected vineyards primarily in the Arroyo Seco and Santa Lucia Highlands appellations of the Salinas Valley. These two areas contribute certain aroma and flavor profiles that when blended, produce an extraordinary wine. Arroyo Seco with its gravelly soils is known for its bright apple and pear flavors with perceptible mineral notes and rich texture. The Santa Lucia Highlands are cooler with deep, well-drained soils producing wines with intense citrus and tropical fruit characters and a crisp, focused structure.
This superb wine is the perfect expression of Monterey Chardonnay. Aromas are expressive of apple and pear with notes of crème brûlée. The palette is very rich with many layers of ripe tropical and citrus fruit flavors accented with toasty oak nuances which linger on a long, creamy 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.
The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.
Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.
While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.