Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Anderson Valley is one of my favorite American AVAs. The best wines are well-balanced, crisp, and long. The 2015 Domaine Anderson is such a wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine is perky and bright. Its aromas and flavors of apple and mineral stay long and rewarding on the palate. Pair it with linguine and clams in a light garlic, white wine reduction sauce. (Tasted: May 8, 2019, Sausalito, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This extroverted reserve-style wine combines generous buttery and nutty nuances with crisp and bracing apple and Anjou-pear flavors to find a very good balance. It feels full bodied and luxurious but stays lively due to good grape acidity.
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Wine & Spirits
Past this wine’s buttery scent you’ll find a fresh, lemony chardonnay with mouthwatering length and a feathery texture—not heavy in the least. It’s ready for crab.
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.
Surrounded by redwood forests and often blanketed in chilly, ocean fog, the Anderson Valley is one of California’s most picturesque appellations. During the growing season, moist, cool, late afternoon air flows in from the Pacific Ocean along the Navarro River and over the valley's golden, oak-studded hills. High and low temperatures can vary as much as 40 or 50 degrees within a single day, allowing for slow and gentle ripening of grapes, which will in turn create elegantly balanced wines.
The Anderson Valley is best known for Pinot Noir made in a range of styles from delicate and floral to powerful and concentrated. Chardonnay also shines here, and both varieties are often utilized for the production of some of California’s best traditional method sparkling wines. The region also draws inspiration from Alsace and produces excellent Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.