Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
There are just under 500 cases of the 2017 Chardonnay Nancie, a rich, full-bodied effort that has ample white currants, toasted hazelnuts, white flowers, and brioche aromas and flavors. It’s a powerful, textured wine, yet it has a vibrant core of acidity, beautiful balance, and a great finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
A blend sourced from four vineyards, including old vines from Farina Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain, this impressive white is complex and structured. A floral opening of jasmine and ginger leads to a lengthy fruit component of red apple and peach, the oak neutral and the finish fresh in acidity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Nancie was barrel fermented and aged in 20% new oak for 11 months. The nose opens with aromas of spring honey, white peaches, dried hay and red apple skin with touches of lemon cream and toasted hazelnut—very pretty! It's medium-bodied with a creamy texture countered by refreshing acidity, with delicate citrus and stone fruit notes and a long, clean 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.
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.