Winemaker Notes
The wine shows an opalescent pale straw color with a slight green tint. Aromas of Golden Delicious apple and white peach blossom emerge with notes of honeysuckle and crushed oyster shell. Meyer lemon notes provide a succulent freshness, while crushed rock and crunchy sea salt minerality create tension. A mouth-filling creaminess through the mid-palate culminates in a long, fresh finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
So complex, creamy, toasty and layered, with... vivid citrus and green apple acidity for great balance...with baked apple, toasted oak and fresh bread aromas, lemon meringue, Bosc pears, lime zest and minerals on the palate
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Jeb Dunnuck
An exceptional inaugural release, the 2023 Chardonnay West Sonoma Coast pours a bright yellow/green hue and has a touch more savory depth, with notes of melon rind, fresh flowers, sea spray, and beeswax. Full-bodied, it has a deeper feel, with a chalky texture and fantastic mouthwatering salinity. Drink 2025-2035.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a vibrant mix of lemon curd, Honeycrisp apple and peppery white flower elements that are aromatic, stylish and sleek. Grace notes of crushed rock minerality, mandarin orange and lemon blossom aromatics add complexity and verve, especially on the long, mouthwatering finish. Drink now through 2034.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay West Sonoma Coast is the inaugural release of this Paul Hobbs Chardonnay from the West Sonoma Coast appellation. It has inviting aromas of quince, lemon, hazelnut and beeswax. The medium-bodied palate offers crisp, understated flavors structured by tense acidity, and it has a long, saline-laced finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay (West Sonoma Coast) is gracious and airy. Lemon confit, almond, marzipan, dried flowers, mint and chalk all grace this understated, nervy Chardonnay from Paul Hobbs.
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.