Winemaker Notes
The 2021 offering is a collection of eighteen single-vineyard quality sites that could all be bottled as single source bottlings; five blocks of Dutton Ranch, various blocks of Sanchietti Vineyard, Gap’s Crown Vineyard, Zio Tony Ranch, Parmelee-Hill Vineyard, and Durell Vineyard. The wine has inviting aromas of summer melon, marzipan, fennel, lemon drop candy, and fresh peach. Toasted almond-toffee and clove round out the refreshing acidity on the finish giving the wine great poise, balance, and energy.
Vegan-Friendly
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
Blended as a mosaic of small, family-owned vineyards in Western Sonoma County, this is gingery with a pollen-like spice. The fruit has the tight feel of a nectarine just coming into ripeness, the wine intentionally reductive and flinty-fresh. This is leesy, spicy, floral and cool.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This harmonious and well-balanced wine opens with light butter, toast and Bartlett pear aromas, then fills the mouth with rich pear and peach flavors accented by vanilla. A full body is nicely paired with good acidity, so the wine works fine as a cocktail or with lunch and dinner.
-
Wine Spectator
Everything here fits together seamlessly, with pineapple, lemon curd and peach flavors backed by bright acidity, plus savory overtones of toasted, salted almond and a hint of candied ginger. There's plenty of intensity on the fresh finish, where the flavors crescendo.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A bright straw yellow color, the 2021 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is forward and ripe in the glass, with oak-inflected spiced notes of baked apple, toasted baking spice, and honeyed citrus. Medium-bodied, it keeps nice tension on the palate, with a vibrant but ripe spine of acidity and a rounded, medium to full-bodied feel that wraps it. It has a mouthwatering feel and a nice flourish of decadence.
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.