Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Very delicate on the nose, this bottling offers aromas of nectarine, white-melon flesh, a hint of melon rind and light lemon spray. The palate is extremely textural, offering subtle flavors of lemon cream, chalk, lemongrass, ash and Brie rind that will live forever. Drink now through 2042.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2017 Chardonnay Sanford & Benedict comes from a Grand Cru site in the Sta. Rita Hills and spent 15 months in 15% new French oak. More classic apple and caramelized stone fruits, white flowers, crushed rocks, and spice emerge from this beauty and it's supple, layered, and balanced on the palate, with both richness and freshness. It's already drinking beautifully but has the balance and class to keep for 8-10 years, if not longer, in cool cellars.
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Wine & Spirits
A complex old-vine chardonnay, this delivers a litany of flavors with spritzy precision: white flowers and sea air, lime salt, fennel frond and white peach, jasmine, acacia and smoke, to name just a few. They yield to a finish that’s soft, yellow and creamy, like lemon curd and diatomaceous earth, and like the light at Sanford & Benedict when the fog lifts, around noon.
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 superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.