Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard was aged for 14 months in French oak barrels, 60% new. It delivers an incredible array of notes—grapefruit, peaches, fresh apples and pineapples with suggestions of ginger ale, allspice and marzipan plus a waft of clover honey. Full-bodied, the palate has a seductive texture and delivers mouth-coating stone fruit and tropical layers, finishing with great length.
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Wine Spectator
Big and rich, featuring a plush texture to the concentrated pear tart, apple pastry and dried apricot flavors. Viscous midpalate, with savory snap to the finish, which delivers minerally and toasty notes. Drink now through 2025.
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.