Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
An attractive chardonnay, which shows vanilla and bread dough as well as cloves, cooked apples and Williams pears. Medium to full body, crunchy acidity and a bright yet textured finish. Drink now.
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Wine Spectator
Well-structured, with fresh-cut apple, pear and honeydew melon flavors that are broad and generously spiced. Hints of lavender show on the creamy finish. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay has a nose of apple, peach and green guava with touches of lightly browned toast and yeast extract. Medium-bodied and refreshing with allspice notions coming through, it has a slight oiliness to the texture and good length.
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Wine Enthusiast
Pretty in jasmine on the nose, this wine offers juicy stone fruit within a rounded, likable framework of balanced richness and lingering acidity.
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.