Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Connoisseurs' Guide
Here is a firm and very vital young Chardonnay that shows the desired virtues to be had when measured ripeness is met by cool-climate structure. Keenly focused on appley fruit and enriched by a careful complement of sympathetic oak, the wine is at once both deep and still tightly bound with glimmers of layering that point the way to great things with age. It can be enjoyed now with sundry seafoods, but the smart money says to wait for a few years.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Marked by big sharp acidity, like biting into a lime, and clean, linear flavors of limes, green apples and pineapples, this bone-dry Chardonnay badly needs food to balance it out. Think of bacon-wrapped grilled shrimp, or a spicy Ahi tuna tartare dish.
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.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.