Winemaker Notes
From 35+ year old organically farmed vines. Soils here are Goldridge sandy loam with high concentration of silica. This section of Heintz sits on a west facing ridge just outside of the town of Occidental and enjoys the daily eects of the coastal fog bank. Mid day sunshine coupled with cool air from recent fog presence allows the grapes to ripen in the perfect climate.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay Charles Heintz is youthfully shy, hinting at nutty tones, citrus, petrichor and white blossoms. The medium-bodied palate has lovely energy, silky, fresh and with an array of flavor layers—from floral to earth and back to stone—finishing very long and nuanced. This is still painfully young, but with time in bottle, it could be one of Ceritas's most successful Chardonnays in 2018.
Rating: 94+
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.