Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Leading off the Chardonnays, the 2016 Chardonnay Bien Nacido comes from unquestionably one of the Grand Cru sites in Santa Barbara County. This powerful, rich, rockingly textured effort offers loads of ripe orchard fruits, pineapple cream, and white flowers as well as that distinct salinity and minerality that’s the hallmark of this site. Beautifully layered, medium to full-bodied, with vibrant acidity, drink it any time over the coming decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard is a very classy wine, unwinding in the glass with notes of citrus zest, crisp orchard fruit, fresh peach, citrus blossom and subtle honeycomb. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, bright and pure with a delicately glossy attack, deceptive mid-palate depth, and a long, focused finish. While this is quite understated in style, it reveals more and more dimension and nuance the longer it sits in the glass, and possesses the balance and structure to evolve gracefully for seven or eight years.
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 lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.