Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast offers up subtle lemongrass, grapefruit and nectarine notes with touches of chalk dust and fresh ginger. Medium-bodied with well-played freshness accenting the creamy texture and quiet intensity of stone fruit flavors, it delivers a long, minerally finish.
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Decanter
From the 'true' Sonoma Coast on Camp Meeting Ridge, so-called because local Kashaya Indians and trappers once traded there. A subdued nose leads onto a palate that spells ripeness and power, countered by vivid freshness on the fluid, concentrated palate. A hint of smoke - this was fermented and matured in French oak - rounds out the rich palate, with ripe stone fruit peeping through alongside zesty, ripe lemon peel.
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.