Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Chardonnay Far Coast Vineyard comes across like a grand cru Chevalier-Montrachet from France. Great minerality, loads of citrus oil, apple blossom, white peach and tangerine notes are all present in this wine aged in 35% new French oak. The wine has stunning concentration, a broad, savory palate, a full body and notes of tropical fruit emerge with further aging. This is another relatively small cuvée of about 12+ barrels of wine, or 310 cases. Drink it over the next 5-7 years.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
Wine Spectator
Lots of vitality emerges from the zesty core of tangerine, nectarine, citrus and green apple flavors, picking up a light spicy oak edge and ending with a long, persistent finish. Drink now through 2020.
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.