Winemaker Notes
This is an elegant Chardonnay that displays fresh, bright aromatics of lime peel, guava, beeswax and lemon zest backed by hints of honeysuckle and jasmine. Flavors of key lime pie coat the palate with a hint of hazelnut, and its minerality is nicely balanced with soft acidity.
Enjoy it paired with salmon carpaccio drizzled with avocado oil and sprinkled with capers or with a coconut chicken curry with topped with chopped almonds, but it is best with a giant hunk of Humbolt Fog cheese. Enjoy now until 2025.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the two Chardonnays I was able to taste, the 2017 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block UU spent 8 months on lees in 20% new French oak 500-liter barrels. Caramelized apples, toasted spice, white flowers, and lots of minerality and iodine notes all emerge from this more structured, foursquare, concentrated effort that's going to benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age. It's a classic expression of this site and should keep for over a decade. Rating: 92+
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Wine Enthusiast
A warm butter aroma meets with lemon spray, citrus pith, wet gravel and crushed limestone on the nose of this bottling from a coveted single block in a historic vineyard. There is lots of tension on the palate, where restrained flavors of lime peel and Asian pear make for a tasty experience.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block UU opens with notes of toast and a hint of gunflint, fleshing out on the nose to quince, baked yellow apple, peach and floral perfume with a touch of cream. Medium-bodied, it offers concentrated toasty fruits in the mouth and fresh acidity to lift the finish.
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.