Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The vineyard designate, the 2018 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard is largely in the same mold, although it was brought up in slightly less new oak (25%) and is just a touch lower in alcohol and higher in acidity. Despite those technical details, it's richer and more opulent (which is why you shouldn't judge a wine by numbers) and offers beautiful stone fruits, toasted brioche, honeysuckle, and white flower aromas and flavors. As with the straight Sonoma, it's pure, medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and has a great, great finish. This is another stunningly good Chardonnay from this estate to enjoy over the coming 7-8 years.
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James Suckling
Hawthorn, ripe-peach, spiced-apple and praline aromas. It’s full-bodied with crisp acidity. Concentrated and flavorful with a dense, phenolic texture. Long and tight.
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Wine Enthusiast
Mineralladen earthiness underlies a richly textured and lengthy expression of ample tropical and stone fruit in this impressive vineyard designate. Baking spice and baked pear complete the cohesive picture of full-bodied power and grace.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard has layered aromas of baked quince, yellow apples, lemon cream, hazelnuts and honey with touches of baker's yeast. The medium-bodied palate is uber silky and seamlessly fresh, just spreading its wings and gaining amplitude on the long, savory finish. Give it another year or two in bottle.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Domaine Della Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay exhibits well-defined richness on the palate and in the finish. TASTING NOTES: This wine deftly combines fruit, earth, and oak. Enjoy its richness and excellent balance with broiled shellfish in a cream sauce.
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Wine Spectator
Well-structured, featuring a fresh, pure-tasting mix of green apple, Asian pear and gooseberry flavors, backed by crisp acidity. Chamomile and honeysuckle notes fill the lithe, expressive finish. Drink now through 2025.
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 standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.