Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Readers who enjoy honeysuckle, wet stone, and leesy, waxy notes should look for the stunning 2005 Chardonnay Three Sisters Vineyard Sea Ridge Meadow. It possesses superb freshness and oodles of citrus fruits in its fresh, full-bodied personality. One of Martinelli’s later released Chardonnays.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and smoky, with complex, detailed, bold flavors built around layers of ripe fig, apple, melon and floral scents, keeping a tight focus and then turning elegant and supple on the finish, with wonderful detail.
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.