Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Another rocking wine is the 2014 Chardonnay Gap’s Crown Vineyard, which spent 12 months in 40% new oak. Rich, medium to full-bodied, textured and layered, it has terrific notes of crushed rock, white peach, white flowers and a kiss of that cream corn characteristics that I almost only find in wines from the north coast. It too will shine for decade.
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Wine Enthusiast
Crisp green apple is the star in this well-made, balanced and elegant wine, that's tangy yet smooth, with a voluptuous tease of anise. Approachably structured, the complexity of the texture and lurking layers of further flavor suggest letting this wine open slowly to unveil its true self, and allowing it to linger on the palate.
Editors' Choice
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.