Winemaker Notes
Sisters is produced in limited quantities and is sold mainly to our wine club members and mailing list. This wine presents a focused, intense character that feels light and pure, finishing with refreshing gunflint, lemon, and distinctive crunchy mineral nuances. It has weight but it is vibrant and filled with energy. The unique personality of the Sisters 2017 vintage is found in its richer aroma that hints at peach and honeysuckle aromas that progress to a livelier structure as it opens up.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Larry Stone’s named his reserve blend for his mother and aunt. This 2017 is made in precisely the same way as the 2018 (also recommended here). It’s more polished and reserved than the precocious 2018, leaning into the nutty lees and oak notes as the wine has become more compact and serene. The fruit feels bright but composed, mellowed into a graceful succulence. Like the ’18, it is still years from its peak expression.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Sisters is scented of warm peaches, quince, almonds, hay and earth with notes of pie spice, white flowers and crushed shell. The light to medium-bodied palate begins precise and minerally before fleshing out to nutty nuances, zooming in again for a long, bright, juicy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
This reserve-level wine honors founder Larry Stone's mother and her sister, whose family farm set him on a winemaking path. Sleek and perfectly honed, it's a mix of green apple, melon and papaya, all lightly ripened but in proportion. It finishes with a burst of buttery toast.
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Wine Spectator
A sleek and lovely white, with delicately expressive pear and apple flavors, laced with notes of river stone and wild flowers. Drink now through 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.
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.