Winemaker Notes
The Sonoma Coast Ovation Chardonnay is similar in style to the classic Ovation but differs in structure and ripeness. This wine has a concentrated core of lemon, fig and cream, with natural acidity and minerality that give it great strength and persistence. This wine was produced by 100% native fermentation with a focus on working the lees in barrel in order to elevate and enhance the mid-palate. The result is a naturally made wine that is unfined, unfiltered and an expression of the region's characteristic minerality and spice.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Acidity, dryness and steely minerality characterize this Chard. It has lemon and vanilla flavors that are brisk and clean. It’s refreshing to get such an elegant alternative to today’s ripe, fruity Chards. Gets better and better as it warms in the glass. Drink this brilliant wine with shellfish, sourdough bread and lots of butter.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Chardonnay Freestone Vineyard Ovation reveals crisp lemon blossom, white citrus, crushed rock, flower, and orange blossom characteristics, and beautiful texture, freshness, and elegance. It is undeniably a successful Chardonnay in a challenging vintage for this varietal in Sonoma. This can be enjoyed over the next 2-3 years.
The Freestone Vineyard, a 100-acre, cool climate site planted on the Sonoma Coast by Joseph Phelps, is finally coming into production, offering consumers a bevy of different Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. There are three Chardonnay offerings, all of which emphasize the minerality and citrusy characteristics of this varietal with little intrusive oak, despite the fact that they are barrel-fermented and aged primarily in new French oak.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and vibrant, with lively acidity and snappy pear, apple and citrus shadings. Still a touch crisp and flinty in a good way, this is full-bodied and ends with a long, clean finish. Drink now through 2013. 2,500 cases made.
Joseph Phelps Vineyards is a family-owned winery committed to crafting world class, estate-grown wines. Founded in 1973 when Joe Phelps purchased a former cattle ranch near St. Helena in the Napa Valley, the winery now controls and farms nearly 375 acres of vines on eight estate vineyards in St. Helena, the Stags Leap District, Oakville, Rutherford, Oak Knoll District, Carneros and South Napa Valley. In 1999, the Phelps family added 100 acres of vineyard property near the town of Freestone on the Sonoma Coast, where Phelps now grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Phelps is best known for its flagship Napa Valley blend of red Bordeaux varietals, Insignia, first produced in 1974. Awarded Wine Spectator's "Wine of the Year" in 2005, Insignia is widely regarded as a qualitative benchmark for California winemaking.
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.