Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Chardonnay Haynes Vineyard is up with the crème de la crème in the lineup and is certainly one to snatch up. Coming from the cooler Coombsville appellation just outside of Napa, it offers a beautiful white flower and citrus character as well as some marine and oyster shell nuances. With medium body, vibrant acidity, terrific balance, and a focused style, it’s reminiscent of a Grand Cru Chablis. Drink it over the coming decade.
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Wine & Spirits
Classical chardonnay scents of chamomile and dandelion lend this wine a lasting fragrance. It’s clean and savory, even as it packs a lot of power into sunny flavors of tangerine and orange. There’s also a gamey note that Associate Editor Karen Moneymaker suggested would work well with roast goat.
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 in the southeastern corner of Napa Valley in the Vaca range, the vineyards of the Coombsville AVA enjoy a long growing season mitigated by cool, San Pablo Bay fog.