Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another heavenly Chardonnay is the 2016 Chardonnay Stone Côte Vineyard, which comes from a single block in the Durell Vineyard, on the Sonoma Coast. Fermented and aged in 30% new barrels, bottle unfined and unfiltered, it offers a huge bouquet of caramelized lemons, pineapple, hazelnuts, and white flowers, with just a kiss of toasty oak in the background. Made in a richer, more powerful style, it nevertheless has beautiful acidity, a fresh, focused texture, obvious minerality, and a great finish. Count yourself lucky if you have some of this in the cellar. It should continue drinking brilliantly for another 6-7 years and keep even longer in cool cellars.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Hartford Court Chardonnay Stone Côte has lovely scents of lemon meringue pie, white peaches, honeyed pears and baking bread with touches of beeswax and toasted almonds. Medium to full-bodied, the palate sports wonderful harmony and a compelling creaminess to the texture with great freshness and a long peachy 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.