Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This is a beautiful and intense chardonnay with so much flavor and intensity. It’s full and layered with caramel, cooked apple and peach pie yet it remains tensioned and solid. Like Grand Cru Burgundy. Old Wente clone.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Calera Mt. Harlan Chardonnay has always been unique to me, and the 2020 vintage is one of the best the winery has produced. This wine brings aromas and flavors of dried earth, savory spices, a floral note, and stone fruits to the fore. Enjoy it with panko-breaded, pan-fried Petrale sole. (Tasted: March 23, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
-
Wine Spectator
Succulent, with grilled peach, mango and ripe melon flavors that are appealingly fleshy, with details of fresh ginger, nutmeg and toasted brioche. Ends with fresh acidity and details of lime zest and yuzu. Drink now. 1,164 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.
At elevations reaching well over 2,000 feet, the Mt. Harlan AVA in the Gabilan Range is an anomaly among its surrounding Central Coast appellations. Recognizing the splendor of the area and its ideal limestone-rich soils, Josh Jensen chose Mt. Harlan as the home of his Calera Wine Company in the 1970s. Awarded his own AVA in 1990, Calera is the only commercial winery in the appellation.