Winemaker Notes
Our entry level appellation chardonnay comes from several fantastic vineyard sites offering great depth and layers of distinct aromatics which lift from the glass with white flowers, citrus blossom, crisp pear, and hints of green mango. The wine has a beautiful palate presence with vibrant acidity, tension, salinity, and minerality framed by hints of oak providing notes of vanilla bean and hazelnut. Aged for 15 months on fine lees in 100% French oak barrels, 30% new.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Ryan Deovlet’s basic appellation wine just keeps getting better. He blends it from vineyards in Santa Maria and the Santa Rita Hills, aging it on the fine lees in French oak barrels (30 percent new), and manages to integrate the oak so it’s merely a platform for the wine’s zesty, sandy freshness. The immediate impression is brisk, coastal cool, then the fruit begins to develop from green melon toward tangerine and bright tangelo. Three days later, there’s not a touch of oxidation on the wine: It’s still lovely, saline and as brisk as ocean air.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The appellation wine is the 2016 Chardonnay Santa Barbara County, and as with the reds, it’s a mix of the single vineyard releases. Aged 15 months in 20% new oak, it gives up plenty of smoke, orchard fruits, brioche, and white flower aromas and flavors, with subtle background oak. It's rich, layered, and textured, and has a more approachable, softer style comparted to the two single vineyards. Drink this brilliant value any time over the coming 2-4 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay Santa Barbara County, made with about 20% new Damy barrels, has a lovely nose of Golden Delicious apples, crushed pistachios, lemon pith, river stone and a soft undercurrent of white blossoms. The palate is light to medium-bodied with a silky texture, gaining in amplitude and savoriness in the mouth before zooming back in with bright freshness and finishing long, energetic, saline and mineral.
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Wine Enthusiast
Toasty aromas or brioche and hazelnuts meet with chalk and crème fraiche on the nose of this county-wide blend. The palate tangs with lime and grapefruit zest before a softer almond cream aspect rises in the midpalate and extends toward the finish.
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.
With a dry and mild climate cooled significantly by moist ocean fog and breezes, Santa Barbara County is a grape-grower’s dream. Part of the larger Central Coast appellation, Santa Barbara is home to Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez Valley. The conditions here provide an opportunity for nearly effortless production of high-quality cool-climate Central Coast wines. This is also the site of the 2004 film Sideways, which caused Pinot Noir’s popularity to skyrocket and brought new acclaim to the region.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the stars of Santa Barbara, producing wines marked by racy acidity. Crisp Sauvignon Blanc and savory Syrah are also important. The region is home to many young and enthusiastic winemakers eager to experiment with less common varieties including Chenin Blanc, Grüner Veltliner, Trousseau Gris, Gamay and Cabernet Franc, making it an exciting area to watch.