Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Mostly barrel-fermented (a small portion was done in concrete eggs) and aged in 40% new French oak, the 2014 Chardonnay One Sixteen is a multi-vineyard blend that's mostly from the Russian River Valley. It's a screaming good effort that has rich, layered notes of roasted apples, buttered citrus, hazelnuts and brioche. Rich, yet also vibrant, pure and racy, with bright acidity, it needs short term cellaring to come together and will drink well for over a decade.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
If a bit staid and deceptively simple on first sniff with initially hesitant aromas of fresh apples backed up by a bit of sweet oak, this lively young wine follows with deep, slow-to-expand, very persistent flavors that are at once rich and bristling with fruity energy. It will serve in the short term as a cleansing foil to the likes of steamed mussels or buttery seared scallops, but there is more in store for those willing to exercise a bit of patience, and its obvious potential for better has us leaning to another year or two of cellar time.
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Wine Spectator
A racy, exciting style, with a touch of grassiness to the core pear and green apple notes, this is pure, clean and focused, long and persistent, if pithy in texture.
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 standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.