Winemaker Notes
Tucked within several acres of Pinot Noir at Doc’s Ranch, JoAnn’s Block features one acre of Clone 5 Chardonnay. At only the third vintage from Doc’s Ranch, the JoAnn’s Block Chardonnay continues to impress. There is a verve to this wine, with tons of acidity down the mid-palate and a lovely note of salinity on the finish. Doc’s is right next door to Coastlands, only 3-miles from the ocean, making it one of the westerly most planted Chardonnay Vineyards in the Sonoma Coast.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Doc's Ranch Vineyard JoAnn's Block has intense aromas of white peaches, beeswax, roasted almonds, biscuit and flint. The medium-bodied palate is savory and textural, with a biscuity character that adds breadth and savoriness. It has seamless acidity and a very long finish that offers continually shifting flavors. It's very energetic and will be long lived in the cellar.
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.