Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Slightly more pear and honeyed peach fruits as well as honeysuckle, sappy green herbs, and a subtle sense of minerality emerge from the 2018 Chardonnay Fog Dance Vineyard, a more focused, elegant wine from the cooler Green River section of the Russian River Valley. The purity of fruit is spot on, I love its overall balance, and this crisp yet rich 2018 is going to keep for 5-7 years, if not longer.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay Fog Dance Vineyard was 100% barrel fermented in French oak barrels, 32% new, and aged for 15 months. It rocks up with open-knit scents of peach cobbler, apple crumble and gingersnap with suggestions of white pepper, almond croissant and oyster shell. Medium-bodied, the palate reveals loads of nuanced layers with a lively line lifting the stone fruit and apple flavors to a long finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
An exuberantly fruity, fleshy and pleasing wine, this shows concentrated flavors of green apple, pear and mandarin. The acidity is moderate and the oak spicy, with hints of nutmeg, lemongrass and Nilla Wafer that remain fresh and focused in the glass.
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.