Winemaker Notes
This is a classically made Chardonnay with a lively mineral profile and alluring freshness derived from the maritime influence of the Sonoma Coast. Enjoy the floral character and the zesty hints of lime, which are rounded out by a creamy texture in the mid-palate.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Focusing on higher elevation vineyards, the 2017 Chardonnay Cuvee Number Five offers a classic profile of orchard fruits, mulled pear, toasted spice, with a certain white flower and honeysuckle-like character that develops with time in the glass. Medium-bodied, rounded, nicely textured, balanced, and layered on the palate, there's not much of it, but it's beautiful.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Cuvée Number Five is scented of lemon confit and crème fraîche with a wicked mineral streak—gravelly, pulverized stone—over a core of ripe red apple and pear plus hints of white flowers and stone fruits. Medium to full-bodied, it has a very creamy texture with concentrated fruit, mineral and savory notions, finishing with refreshing acidity.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is very sharp overall, starting with a tight nose of Gravenstein apple, grapefruit peel, citrus spray and slightly warmer hints of plumeria and toast. The palate rides the citrus-peel line from lemon to grapefruit, proving very racy with acidity.
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.