Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This grows on the western edge of Sonoma Mountain, where it meets the winds and fog of the Petaluma Gap. The vineyard ripened a rich California chardonnay in 2010, a huge wine that retains bright and zesty freshness. The tone of the fruit is orange and gold, from honey to pumpkin spice and citrus pith. Try it with sea bass sashimi.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
MacPhail has built a solid fan base for its many Pinot Noirs, but, as this nicely made wine attests, it can show a winning hand with Chardonnay as well. Long on ripe, apple-like qualities and laced with deft notes of toast, herbs and stones, it is at once both fleshy and firm with plenty of richness apparent throughout. It is still fairly young, yet it holds nothing back, and it will make dandy drinking with alder-smoked salmon or richly sauced chicken fare.
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.