Winemaker Notes
Pair with pan-seared or grilled salmon, fresh salads and vegetables, sirloin or ribeye steak and lightly seasoned chicken dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Truth in advertising is obviously a virtue, and so too is clarity in labeling at a time when Chardonnay styles are in flux.This wine is indeed buttery and toasty too, as is evident aromatically even before the namesake flavor presents itself along with a luscious core of fruit. Despite the recent shift toward simpler, fresher renditions, there remains a lot of consumer demand for this style, and this big, assertive wine delivers on its promise.
Josh Cellars was created in 2007 by vintner Joseph Carr as a tribute to his dad, Josh. The brand started with one varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon, and today features a diverse portfolio of well-balanced and delicious wines made to exacting standards. Sourced from across California’s great winegrowing regions, every vintage represents a labor of love, a commitment to quality, and a very personal promise to make great wine, in honor of Josh.
Joseph discovered a passion for wine at an early age, starting off as a wine steward at a local restaurant in upstate New York, where he was raised. He spent a decade serving as a world-class sommelier followed by another decade as a wine industry executive. After years of hard work, he left it all behind to pursue his dream: starting his own wine company, making wines from California. Today, he lives with his dog Molly and frequently gets visits from his daughter Cailen at their home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
"American Winery of the Year" – Wine Enthusiast, 2021
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.
The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.
Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.
While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.