Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Chardonnay Avni has power and elegance. It’s an exceptional appellation-level Chardonnay, revealing notes of custard, lemon oils, fresh flowers, and ripe pear. It lingers on the palate, with medium to full-bodied richness, offering depth and refreshing lift, as well as notes of almond on the finish. Drink over the coming 7-8 years. This is one to snap up by the case. It saw 25% new French oak.
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James Suckling
This is a very fresh and mineral chardonnay, offering delicious orchard fruit, lemon rind, raw almonds and flinty undertones, together with a very elegant touch of spice. Medium-bodied, very clean and pristine, with textural complexity on the palate, with a gentle phenolic grip to the long, sleek finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay Avni has alluring aromas of quince, white peach, meringue, chamomile, beeswax and hazelnut. The medium-bodied palate has a satiny texture and expansive, honeyed flavors. Its generosity is balanced by mouthwatering acidity, and it has a long, textural finish.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and crisp, with refreshing lemon, lime, kiwi and mineral tones that glide on the vibrant ending.
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.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.