Lucia Vineyards Soberanes Vineyard Chardonnay 2016 Front Bottle Shot
Lucia Vineyards Soberanes Vineyard Chardonnay 2016 Front Bottle Shot Lucia Vineyards Soberanes Vineyard Chardonnay 2016 Front Label

Winemaker Notes

This lively wine opens up quickly with an elegant bouquet of spring flowers, peach skin, key lime, sea breeze, and stone fruit, as well as hints of crushed rock from its origin in our mineral-driven Soberanes Vineyard. Aging for 16 months in 60-gallon and larger barrels, the resulting wine is both pure and focused, with beautifully integrated acidity and oak. Lucia Soberanes Chardonnay is greenish-gold in hue and comprised of various Wente and other “suitcase” clones of chardonnay that yield small quantities but intense character. This wine has great volume and lots of length on the palate and will gain depth as it ages. It drinks well now, and also has the ability to age beyond a decade.

Professional Ratings

  • 94
    More intense and flamboyant, the 2016 Chardonnay Soberanes Vineyard boasts awesome notes of white citrus and pineapple, with subtle brioche and marzipan developing with time in the glass. It’s textured, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated, yet incredibly elegant as well.
Lucia Vineyards

Lucia Vineyards

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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.

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Santa Lucia Highlands

Monterey, California

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Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.

The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.

TEWT06913_16_2016 Item# 508247