Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Liquid Farm's 2014 Chardonnay La Hermana shows the class and pedigree of Santa Maria in its layered, deep personality. Bright and intensely saline, the 2014 really pops with intensity and flavor. Lemon peel, grapefruit, graphite, mint, white pepper and chalk notes build into the tense, vibrant finish. This is an especially vivid, expressive Chardonnay. La Hermana brings together fruit from Bien Nacido and Solomon Hills, two of the most pedigreed sites in Santa Maria.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is one of the most exciting wines of the vintage for this label, a blend of 68% Bien Nacido and 32% from its sister vineyard, Solomon Hills. It shows Meyer lemon pith, chalk, pencil lead, grapefruit pith and a slight touch of yogurt on the nose. The chalk-driven, tingling-with-acidity palate opens onto brine-laced flavors of yellow grapefruit pith and expertly restrained pineapple and peach.
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 lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.