Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Green pear skins and flesh lead toward aromas of nectarine and lime preserves on brioche on the nose of this wine from a historic vineyard. There is a zesty brightness to the sip as well as riper flavors of roasted apple, yellow peach and pineapple, framed by a chalky structure.
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Wine & Spirits
Rich as pie, this has a baked-apple comfort and sweetness that feels gentle and forthright. Scents of pineapple and lees and the peach-skin bite to the finish give it shape and elegance. Best Buy
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Jeb Dunnuck
From the Santa Maria Valley and all from the Clone 15 of Chardonnay, the 2017 Chardonnay reveals a quite light color to go with a perfumed bouquet of racy green citrus, lychee, rose petals, white flowers, and salty minerality. Graceful and lively, if not a touch fleeting, it's nevertheless balanced and seamless, with nicely integrated acidity and a detailed, elegant, juicy style. Drink it over the coming 3-5 years.
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.
A lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.