Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Coming from a great, great vineyard just outside of Santa Maria, the 2021 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard reveals a medium gold hue as well as brilliant aromatics of ripe pears, honeyed flowers, chalky minerality, and toasted nuts. With medium-bodied richness, its oak is beautifully integrated, and it has good acidity as well as a great finish. Another brilliant Chardonnay from Chanin, this will stand toe to toe with the best out there.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose on this single-vineyard expression is subtle and yet incredibly involved, showing delicate citron peel, soft butter and light earth aromas. There's a stony, oyster-shell-like texture and flavor to the palate, which conveys generous butter-braised nectarine and Meyer lemon pith elements as well.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard has delicate aromas of lemon peel, citrus blossom, bread dough and petrichor. The light-bodied palate surprises with its concentrated, honeyed fruits balanced by vibrant acidity. With a touch of chalkiness to its texture and a shimmery finish, it's reminiscent of Chablis.
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 lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.