Winemaker Notes
Full yellow color. Aromas of lemon drop, Crème Brulée and orange zest intermixed with strong notes of minerality (wet stones) and fresh hazelnut. Full-bodied, mineral driven, this wine displays a creamy texture and very long mineral finish. Built to age gracefully for a decade, this wine is already very approachable.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Leading off the Chardonnays, the 2016 Chardonnay Ma Douce (which translates to “My Sweet”) is a rich, full-bodied, blockbuster effort that still stays incredibly pure, seamless, and elegant. Heavenly notes of crushed citrus, flower oil, brioche, toasted nuts, and ample crushed rock notes all emerge from the glass, and it has vibrant acidity and is perfectly balanced. It’s a world-class Chardonnay.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay Ma Douce is from a vineyard in Fort Ross Sea View not far from Marcassin, on the second ridge in from the ocean and located at 1,300-1,500 feet in elevation. The vines are Old Wente clones planted on Goldridge soils. It begins a little youthfully reticent, opening out to notes of warm peaches, grapefruit, pear tart and toasted almond with hints of baking bread and chalk dust. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a beautifully satiny texture with a racy line lifting the savory layers to a nice long finish. 650 cases were made.
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.
On the far western edge of the larger Sonoma Coast appellation, the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA hugs right up against the Pacific coast. Vineyards, planted at rugged elevations between 920 to 1,800 feet, occupy only two percent of the total land in the AVA. Fort Ross-Seaview growers believe that the region boasts an ideal mix of sunshine, cool air and beneficial stress for producing high quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir.