Winemaker Notes
This wine offers bright aromas of Meyer lemon, tangerine skin, and fresh cover crop, with layered flavors of baked citrus, key lime, and a hint of sea salt. The texture is dense and saline, adding depth and complexity to the palate.
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another utterly brilliant Chardonnay, the 2021 Chardonnay 3D comes from a site in the Sta. Rita Hills. It has a balanced, full-bodied, incredibly layered style as well as classic notes of honeyed citrus, stone fruits, crushed stone, and white flowers, with classic Sta. Rita Hills marine-like salinity and oyster shell-like nuances. A powerful, concentrated effort, it has flawless balance, beautiful freshness, and a great finish. It's one of the finest Chardonnays in this report. Hats off to Greg Brewer for continuing to set his own path and make richly textured, powerful, world class Chardonnay.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chardonnay 3D opens with matchstick aromas that give way to perfumed quince, peach and exotic floral and ginger tones. The light-bodied palate, however, is bright, salty and mouthwatering. It has a luxuriously silky texture and an expansive finish that hints at latent exotic tones. It's the most coiled of the Brewer-Clifton Chardonnays this year and will benefit from several years in bottle.
Rating: 94+
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Wine Enthusiast
Subtle and yet expressive in measured ways, this bottling offers lychee, lemongrass, Mandarin orange pith and wet rock aromas on the nose. The palate lands softly at first and then comes the rising acidity and chalky texture, framing lemon-spiked meringue and toasted pine nut flavors
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Wine Spectator
This has terrific intensity and density to the mango, peach and citrus flavors and bright hard lemon candy notes. Reveals peppery white flower and lime sherbet elements that sing out on the finish, while details of fresh-clipped herbs and green tea linger. Drink now. 666 cases made.
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 superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.