Winemaker Notes
The 2014 delivers exciting notes of fresh pear, mandarin orange, and ripe peach. On the palate, stone-fruit melds into wildflower honey and crème-brulée. Driven acidity harmonizes with fullness to keep clean, yet intense and thrilling.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Donelans produce several Chardonnays. The 2014 Chardonnay Nancie sees about 20% new oak. It was aged 10 months prior to bottling and is a three-vineyard blend, two on Sonoma Mountain and one on the lower ground of the Russian River Valley. Terrific fruit intensity as well as vibrant honeysuckle, white peach and lemon blossom notes jump from the glass, and once the wine hits the palate, it is medium to full-bodied, spicy, pure, and refreshing. This is intense in flavor, but remarkably etheral in personality. Drink it over the next 4-5 years.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Chardonnay Nancie is also straight up gorgeous. Brought up in puncheons and concrete eggs, it offers classic Chardonnay notes of white flowers, honeysuckle, white peach and toasted nuts. It's more supple and rounded than the Genevieve's Block Chardonnay, has a deep, rich texture and a great finish. It's pure class all the way and should evolve gracefully.
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Tasting Panel
Made from selected vineyard blocks that the Donelan family feels demonstrate their favorite Sonoma County Chardonnay characteristics. Fresh and juicy with racy acidity and tangy fruit; silky and lifted with bright style and clean flavors.
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 to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.