Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Chardonnay Summum Seven Springs Vineyard received the same elevage as its siblings but was chosen from a tenderloin parcel of the vineyard. It offers up a complex perfume of minerals, smoke, floral notes, white peach, and spiced apple. This sets the stage for a remarkably rich, concentrated, and lengthy Chardonnay, one of the finest I have tasted from Oregon. By the way, all three Chardonnays weigh in at under 13% alcohol and with pHs less than 3.4.
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Wine Spectator
Elegant, refined and racy, offering a taut mouthful of mineral, slate and chalk notes around a zingy core of lemon and quince flavors that don't quit as the finish soars. Seems almost reticent, but the flavors keep hovering with amazing delicacy. Drink now through 2020.
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.