Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Chardonnay displays a radiant, intensely golden-yellow color. The nose is concentrated and ripe and has refreshing lemon juice and crushed flint stone aromas that lead to a full-bodied, firmly structured and persistent palate with ripe and concentrated fruit and fine but tight tannins. This is almost a bit pithy compared to other vintages, but the finish is salty and fresh and very intense. This is another long-distance runner that needs a big, fat fish or lobster. Tasted November 2018. The 2013 vintage brought only 20% of the average yields due to coulure.
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.
Enhancing quality and diversity of wine grapes in recent years after the Swiss government lifted import controls on wine, Switzerland is beginning to gain some ground aside its European neighbors. While its main variety is the white Chasselas, more than half of Switzerland’s wine production is red. The country has 15,000 ha of vineyards mainly in the cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel, Ticino, Valais and Vaud.