Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast has a greenish hue, always a good sign as it seems to suggest chlorophyll and healthy grapes. The wine has hints of subtle pineapple, honeysuckle, green apple skin and citrus oil. It is medium-bodied and refreshing, with terrific fruit purity and a ripe, medium to full-bodied palate with zesty acidity. Drink it over the next 2-3 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Crafted from a range of vineyards, including Gap's Crown and some new sites in this vintage, this lovely, well-made and balanced wine is made in larger quantities than the producer's vineyard-designates and is enjoyable young. Creamy and full bodied at first, it evolves into cohesive flavors of baked pear, toasted almond and lemon-lime.
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.