Winemaker Notes
Aromatic and inviting, this Estate Chardonnay opens with the alluring aroma of freshly baked cardamom buns. The palate is fresh and complex, layering flavors of lemon zest, beeswax, and lemon verbena that delightfully linger on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Brilliant in apples, vanilla, butter and pineapples, this full-bodied and silkytextured wine grabs attention with its sunny aromas. It follows up with a generous palate of fruits, mild spices and a melted texture that’s so easy to sip.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast, has alluring aromas of white peaches, panna cotta, honey and nutmeg. The medium-bodied palate is creamy and rounded with concentrated, honeyed flavors and a long, slightly leesy 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 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.