Winemaker Notes
The 2019 ‘Evenstad Reserve’ Chardonnay showcases a tropical medley of kiwi, pineapple, hibiscus, and hints of sea breeze on the nose. These enticing notes make their way to the palate, meeting a lingering minerality, focused weight and salinity that is brilliantly balanced. This wine showcases the best of each vineyard site found in this captivating blend.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of oyster shell, baked lemon and aniseed. Full-bodied but tight. Steady and harmonious on the palate, with lovely length and balance. It’s driven, yet holds back at the finish. Textured, too. Delicious. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Evenstad Reserve opens with matchstick tones that give way to delicate chamomile, beeswax and mushroom. The palate is focused and tangy with saline-tinged fruit, and there's a notably long, shimmery finish. It deserves another 2-3 years in bottle to unwind.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Chardonnay Evenstad Reserve was aged for 14 months in 100% new French oak. The nose is fresh with white flowers, honeydew melon, and delicate oak spice, followed by a medium-bodied palate with refreshing acidity and notes of peach, lime zest, and chalky earth.
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Wine Spectator
Vibrant and silky, offering floral lemon and nectarine flavors that are accented by orange zest, mineral and spice.
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.
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.