Winemaker Notes
The 2020 Walker Hill Chardonnay bursts with a carnival of fruit flavors that carry the wine from first sniff to final lingering finish. Sweet pineapple, pear, peach, and almond lead the aromas, and the mouth follows through with candied apple, nectarine, and pink grapefruit. It's both full-bodied and crisp, with a lemon custard brioche running down its lengthy finish.
Play up the flavors and texture with a lemon cream sauce-covered pasta, chicken, or fish, or a Havarti or Fontina cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Intense and juicy, with buttery peach pastry, lemon curd, ripe melon and fresh-cut apple flavors that mingle with salted butterscotch around an extremely refreshing core. Drink now. 338 cases made.
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.
Situated on the foggier and colder western edge of the Russian River Valley, almost abutting the Sonoma Coast appellation, Green Valley is one of California’s most reputable Chardonnay and Pinot noir producing regions. It is also a wonderful source of sparkling wines made from these varieties.
Goldridge soils abound throughout the Green Valley appellation. This fine, dark, sandy loam and fractured sandstone is derived from the remains of ancient inland seabeds dating back three to five million years. It is valuable for high quality grape growing because of its excellent drainage and low fertility.