Winemaker Notes
Affinités Chardonnay captures the spirit of its vintage, reflecting both the nuances of acidity and the density of the Chardonnay fruit in that year. Showcasing the remarkable quality of Oregon Chardonnay, it also highlights the vast potential that still lies ahead for the region.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Pear, flint, pine and thyme blossom aromas. A very flavorful wine with a medium to full body, a sweet and savory woodsy character, vibrant acidity and a long finish with a pleasing, honey-like note. A wine you want to revisit.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a blend of sites, including Bishop Creek, Spirit Hill, Von Oehsen, Pearlstad, and L’Angolo, the 2023 Chardonnay Affinites presents a bright yellow color and is a lovely blended wine with very subtle light reduction, featuring notes of wet stones, salted pineapple, and candied lemon. Aged in 26% new French oak for 13 months, it’s full-bodied and light on its feet, with an elegant and delicate chalky texture and a refreshing feel that’s also approachable now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay Affinités was matured in around 30% new oak. It has slowly unfolding aromas of grilled peach, papaya, panna cotta, matchstick and beeswax. Medium-bodied, it has a silky texture and nuanced, spicy flavors. It’s balanced by fresh acidity and has a long, bright finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay Affinites wafts up with a pleasantly rich blend of almond custard, chamomile and gingery spice. Elegance and a soothingly round feel define the palate, with silken textures and opulently ripe orchard fruit balanced by a core of stimulating acidity. The 2023 finishes with tension, leaving behind nuances of nectarine and a lemony concentration that curls the tongue.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and tightly fo- cused, with a lively beam of fresh acidity framed by pear, apple and lemon blossoms as this sails on the vibrant 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.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.