Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Chardonnay, which is labeled as the Fortieth Anniversary Vintage, has a ripe, yet classy and balanced style to go with lots of spiced orchard fruits, honeysuckle, and brioche aromas and flavors. It has beautifully sweet fruit, nicely integrated acidity and clean finish, all of which make it a smoking good Chardonnay that will drink nicely for 2-3 years.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: In a marketplace of pretenders, the Calera Wine Company has always made top-quality Chardonnays in the $20 price range. This wine's performance is not surprising if one looks at the overall excellence of what this producer has made. TASTING NOTES: The 2015 Calera Central Coast Chardonnay satisfies both with its aromas and flavors. This wine exhibits bright core fruit notes, with some dried herbs and fruit. Pair its savory accents with a herbal-accented oven-baked chicken. (Tasted: February 9, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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.