Winemaker Notes
This cool climate Chardonnay is delicate in profile; balancing Meyer lemon and white peach fruit with honeycomb, flint, and mineral notes. The palate reveals notes of sweet apple and mellow pear, and preserved lemon. A vivid streak of acidity runs through the palate, unifying flavors and leading to a crisp, toasty, lightly oaked finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Eleven opens with ripe white peach, baked red apple, lemon meringue and toasted almonds with leesy notes. Medium-bodied with ripe savory fruits and a honey-nut character in the mouth, it has a creamy-textured, flavorful finish. 1,500 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
This satisfying white opens with a distinct green-olive aroma. Tart acidity evolves to support a profile of candied apple and peach on the palate, building to a bright, fresh 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.
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.