Winemaker Notes
Lush, pure, and polished, this enticing Chardonnay offers aromas of lemon, lime, white peach, sweet tangerine, and caramel. The bright citrus layers are echoed on the full-bodied palate, where they mingle with juicy flavors of stone fruit and French oak-inspired hints of crème brûlée and spice.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Golden apples, green apples, vanilla and cinnamon flavors pour out of this ripe and indulgent wine. It has all the warm, buttery nuances and rich texture that make California Chardonnay so appealing.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Decoy delivers nicely on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of pencil lead, ripe apples, dried earth, and savory spices. Pair it with an oven-roast chicken. (Tasted: July 7, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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.