Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Bright and minerally, with white stone fruit character and hints of lemon rind, chamomile, subtle spices and crushed stones. Pure and refined, with a medium body and a seamless, lingering, silky feel. Delicate and focused, with plenty of freshness that shows citrus blossom and white almond undertones.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Chardonnay La Source has detailed aromas of white fruit, panna cotta, beeswax and flint. The medium-bodied palate is satiny and expressive with saline-laced flavors and fireworks of fresh acidity. It combines generosity and verve and should be long lived in the cellar.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Aged for nine months in Stockinger puncheons and six months in stainless steel, La Source presents Meyer lemon and cantaloupe aromas that are accented by bits of lavender and coconut. La Source’s citrusy yuzu fruit flavor melds with pear and salty Marcona almonds. The wine’s elegant nature suggests pairing with any Edith Piaf album.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Chardonnay La Source offers brilliant purity, taking on more intensity and leading with a very appropriate level of reductive tension as well as spice, pristine green apples, lime cordial, and fresh flowers. Medium to full-bodied, it offers tremendous clarity, with pure concentration and great length driving through the finish.
-
Wine Spectator
A precise and dynamic white, with compelling lemon and apricot flavors highlighted by crushed stone and zesty spice tones that sail on the 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.
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.