Winemaker Notes
Straw yellow color with aromas of lemon drop, apple and fresh herbs (chamomile). Full-bodied and concentrated, this wine displays a creamy and rich texture which coats the palate for a very long time.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
I loved the nose on the 2020 Chardonnay Ma Princesse, which has a captivating array of white peach, pineapple, minty herbs, and flowers. Coming from older vines in the Ritchie Vineyard in the Russian River, it’s full-bodied, concentrated, and vibrant, with beautiful purity and length.
Range: 95-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sourced from the Ritchie Vineyard and barrel fermented in one-third new French oak, the 2020 Chardonnay Ma Princesse is a beauty, featuring intriguing scents of pencil shavings, crushed stone, pineapple and lemon. It's medium to full-bodied but nicely delineated and crisp, with a zesty, lingering 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.
A standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.