Winemaker Notes
La Source is the most hedonistic and full-bodied wine of our 2017 vintage. There is a breadth on the palate and a textural richness that offers great immediacy and optimal early drinking.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Density and freshness, with aromas of lemon curd and fresh flowers – a bit of spice, but the oak influence is well integrated, underpinned by a marked mineral component. The fruit comes from the base of one specific lava flow in the celebrated Seven Springs Vineyard, is vinified in 500L puncheons and sees a year in cask (10% new) and a further six months in tank. Superbly balanced and could age for a decade or more: impressive!
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Chardonnay La Source opens a bit reductive. Still, it reveals notes of white flowers, hints of wax, bright green apples, and quince. Medium-bodied, it offers refreshing acidity, which this cool vintage delivers, accompanied by a chalky, pithy texture and a refined finish.
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James Suckling
This is showing aromas of dried green apples, beeswax, salted almonds, crushed shells, dried jasmine and flint. Medium- to full-bodied, with quietly powerful and dense layers. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay La Source is scented of poached pears, honeyed apples, hazelnut and crushed shell with gentle floral nuances. The palate is medium-bodied and silky, and it explodes with fresh fruit flavors permeated by a wicked line of crushed rock minerality and matched by tangy acidity, finishing very long and energetic. Rating: 92+
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Wine Spectator
Expressive and elegantly dynamic, with vibrant apple skin, crushed stone and jasmine flower accents that build richness on the finish. 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.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.