Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
This vineyard is located on a mountain ridge north of Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast at 700 feet elevation, and the wine was aged for 14 months in 39% new French oak. The 2019 Chardonnay Far Coast Vineyard offers more lime citrus, saline minerality, and white peach, and the palate is fresh, energetic, and consistent with the nose. Texture-wise, it is markedly different, with more focused structure and tension.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Far Coast Vineyard comes from vines planted on a mountain ridge north of Fort Ross on the Sonoma coast. It was barrel fermented and matured for 14 months in 39% new French oak. It is bursting with aromas of white peaches, tangerine, ginger and honeycomb, with exotic spicy undertones. The medium-bodied palate is satiny, expansive and intense, with tangy acidity that pulls out highlights of candied citrus and an array of spicy accents.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a pure, powerful laser beam of Meyer lemon, Honeycrisp apple and tangerine, with notes of minerality, beeswax and dried white flowers on a sleek, polished frame. Gains momentum on the long, expressive finish. Drink now.
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.