Winemaker Notes
The wine displays notes of preserved lemon, straw, honey and citrus blossom opening to a riper golden delicious apple, pear and pineapple palate. Ultra vibrant freshness and clean fruit from the cool growing climate and minerality from limestone soils.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Broad aromas of cut apple and pear combine with chalk and ripe grapefruit rind on the nose of this bottling. There is solid tension on the palate that holds up against the ripe Anjou pear and green-melon flavors, with a tight acidity that goes long into the finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Joyce Submarine Canyon Chardonnay is bright, lively, and excellent. TASTING NOTES: This wine is active and alive. Enjoy its energetic aromas and flavors of tart fruit and mineral notes with linguine and clams. (Tasted: November 6, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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 geographic and climatic paradise for grape vines, Monterey is a part of the greater Central Coast AVA and contains within it five smaller sub-appellations, including Arroyo Seco, San Lucas, San Bernabe, Hames Valley and the famous Santa Lucia Highlands. The climate is relatively warm but tempered by cool, coastal winds, allowing the regions in Monterey County an exceptionally long growing season. Bud break often happens two weeks sooner and harvest tends to be two weeks later compared to other surrounding regions.
Monterey’s coastal side, where the cooling ocean fog allows grapes to develop a perfect sugar-acid balance, excels in the production of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. Warmer, inland subzones are home to fleshy, concentrated and full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Chardonnay, covering about 40% of vineyard acreage, is the most widely planted grape in all of Monterey County.