Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This is a luxuriously flavorful wine, robust in pear, green apple and a touch of toffee. With a great depth of integrated oak and concentrated body weight, it finishes in complex acidity and a contrast of sweet vanilla
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Los Carneros offers up intense cedar chest, baked apricots and poached pears scents with suggestions of honeycomb and brioche. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a pleasant oiliness and bags of stone fruit and pears flavors with a long spicy finish.
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.