Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This wine is medium to full bodied, with integrated, toasty oak and a healthy dose of baked apple and pear. Made in a luxurious style, it delivers in flavor and subtle elegance, with the structure to age further. Drink through 2020.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Chardonnay Cuvée Sauvage is a beauty from Franciscan Estate. No doubt, based on the name, it was wild yeast fermented with some of their best fruit from Carneros. The wine was aged for 16 months in 100% French oak, and shows nice honeysuckle, poached pear and citrus oil in a medium to full-bodied, beautifully pure and fresh style. This is very Burgundian and could age nicely for another 4-5 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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.