Winemaker Notes
The new 2019 is Winemaker David Milner's first grape-to-glass vintage of Nancie Chardonnay. Every vintage of this wine embodies elegance and class, but no vintage is the same. The assemblage changes every year and thus, Nancie does not have a recipe. This wine lets you sit shotgun while the cool climate and the terroir do all the navigating, and they never steer you wrong. It is truly an inimitable wine. This Chardonnay has fantastic structure for such a young wine, and its youth brings the party to the palate with lively peach pit, flinty minerality, and juicy quince. The acidity is very chalky and pleasantly mouth-coating.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Chardonnay Nancie is floral with honeysuckle, wet stone, and fresh pineapple. The palate is layered and energetic with orange blossom, well-integrated oak spice, and ripe peach.
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Wine Spectator
Restrained and juicy up front, with plenty of generous Fuji apple and fresh grated ginger flavors that show details of toasted green tea, pink salt and peppery white flowers on a sleek, refreshing frame. Drink now.
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.