Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Casteel Chardonnay opens with aromas of preserved lemon, brioche, white pepper and ocean air. The palate is both graceful and energetic, displaying the tension of a wine that will age gracefully.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Very complex and sophisticated, flinty, reductive notes that play into fresh and vibrant, yellow citrus fruit. The palate has a very assertive, long and detailed core of fresh citrus flavors and a wealth of mouthwatering acidity driving the long finish. Exciting chardonnay.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted from magnum, the 2016 Chardonnay Casteel opens with intense mineral notions on the nose, aromas of pulverized stone and petrichor over lemon meringue, Red Delicious apples, hazelnuts, honey toast and clotted cream. Medium-bodied with a light creamy texture, it has beautiful white flowers in the mouth with honey nut and apple pie nuances and a streak of crushed rock running with the very bright acidity, finishing very, very long and honeyed.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This barrel selection is the winery's reserve, with 60% sourced from Wente clones planted in 1977 and the balance coming from the Justice Vineyard planted in 1999. Seamless threads of orange, tangerine, peach and apricot are finished with a streak of buttery caramel, and a final flourish of toasted cashews. It strikes a fine balance of fruit, acid and oak-derived flavors. Drink now through the early 2020s.
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.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.