Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very open and expressive with apple pie, stone, bacon fat, aniseed, and lemon rind. Full-bodied and really flavorful with pie crust and a flavorful finish. Serious. Cellar worthy. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Chardonnay Ross Station Estate is beautiful, offering delicate aromas of fresh lime, bright green apple, and white flowers. It has a soft, silky texture and good freshness in its notes of poached pear, and the long finish reveals a perfume that hangs on after the wine is gone. A beautiful, elegant white, it has just a touch of hazelnut and a pithy texture on the finish, with a hint of chamomile, all while displaying good concentration with power.
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Wine Spectator
A Lush and complex version, with notes of apricot pastry and peach preserves, plus marmalade and candied ginger. Plush and generous, this offers plenty of acidity to keep the flavors fresh and in focus.
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 standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.