Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Intensely flavored and full bodied in style, this wine shows golden oak, honey and flint, with a floral earthiness throughout. Fig, pear and quince dance around the opulence and texture, as forest mushroom and a touch of spice tease on the finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Brought up in 40% new French oak, the 2017 Chardonnay Fog Dance Vineyard comes from the Green Valley portion of the Russian River and has an exuberant, upfront array of tropical fruits, caramelized pineapple, white flower, orange blossom, and brioche. This beauty is rich and opulently textured, with its oak pushed all the way into the background, and follows with a great finish. It's brilliant stuff.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Fog Dance Vineyard is a little youthfully mute at this stage, giving up notions of baked pears, peach cobbler and lemongrass with touches of pie crust and chopped nuts. Medium-bodied, the palate gives a great intensity of pure, well-defined apples and pears flavors, structured with a refreshing backbone, finishing chalky.
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Wine Spectator
Fruity, with precise, well-structured green apple and citrus flavors that feature minerally richness. The lithe finish offers pastry, spice and honeyed accents.
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.
Situated on the foggier and colder western edge of the Russian River Valley, almost abutting the Sonoma Coast appellation, Green Valley is one of California’s most reputable Chardonnay and Pinot noir producing regions. It is also a wonderful source of sparkling wines made from these varieties.
Goldridge soils abound throughout the Green Valley appellation. This fine, dark, sandy loam and fractured sandstone is derived from the remains of ancient inland seabeds dating back three to five million years. It is valuable for high quality grape growing because of its excellent drainage and low fertility.