Winemaker Notes
Our Director's Chardonnay is sourced from vineyards throughout Sonoma County that represent a range of climates, soil profiles and clonal selections. This diversity yields a complex and intriguing wine and allows for nuances in blending. Our fruit is harvested in the early morning hours and whole-cluster pressed.
A large percentage of the wine is then barrel fermented to achieve richness and bring out notes of vanilla and spice. The remaining wine is fermented in stainless steel for a touch of vibrant acidity, which helps create a beautiful balance. The wine also undergoes partial malolactic fermentation for a creamy mouthfeel.
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.