Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
James Hall taps his network of growers for this regional blend, working with several Dutton Ranch sites in Russian River Valley, plus Durrell, Bootlegger’s Hill and Gap’s Crown, to name a few. He allows the juice to ferment spontaneously in French oak barrels (29 percent new), where all of it undergoes malolactic conversion. The result is potently rich in a satisfying, savory way. This 2020 is earthy and wholesome, integrating the oak and the lactic acidity into an overtone of caramelized butter, a note that doesn’t dominate the wine’s clean and regal savor.
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Wine Enthusiast
Bright and floral with underlying grip, this is a strong, full-bodied wine. With plenty of weight and breadth, it finds its balance in crisp notions of Meyer lemon and tangerine. The oak is supportive, supple and brimming in baking spice.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A youthful medium golden yellow, the 2020 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is fresh and ripe with aromas of pineapple, almond, and preserved citrus. Medium to full-bodied, with good lift to its notes of crunchy saline earth, yellow flowers, pithy Meyer lemon, and ripe golden apple, it strikes a nice balance between its fruit and savory minerality. Drink it over the next several years.
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Wine Spectator
Features fresh citrus, apple and melon notes that are slightly tangy, with mouthwatering acidity and details of pickled ginger, lemon zest, green almond and orange blossoms.
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.