Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Chardonnay Soberanes Vineyard is a small step up, with more depth of fruit and richness. Orange blossom, orchard fruits, white peach, and some toasty notes give way to a ripe, sexy, full-bodied effort that holds onto beautiful purity and elegance.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Soberanes Vineyard was aged for a year in barrel (about 40% new oak), then rested with the lees in stainless before bottling. Youthfully shy on the nose, it slowly gives up crushed stone, lime peel and white blossom scents with a core of kiwi and peachy fruit and toasty/popcorn notes in the background. Medium to full-bodied, it offers wonderfully intense, ripe, savory fruits in the mouth with honey, nutty and toasty accents, a strong mineral streak, lovely lip-smacking acidity and a long, energetic finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
An expertly reserved streak of hazelnut and thinly sliced lemon rinds meet with a waft of butter on the delicately delicious nose of this bottling by the Pisoni family. The palate is wrapped in a chalky tension, allowing flavors of clay, Meyer lemon and light buttercream to take hold.
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Wine Spectator
This is filled with poached pear, fresh-cut apple and quince flavors that are bound together by fresh acidity. Dried savory and citrus accents show on the complex finish. Drink now through 2024.
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.
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.