Winemaker Notes
This wine has real harmony and balance. The seductive, silky texture in the mid palate stays fresh and retains the energy typically found in Peay Chardonnay. The wine is not heavy or ponderous but full of character. The finish is bright and clean and there is an aftertaste of lemon curd and mint that lingers for minutes.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Chardonnay West Sonoma Coast is a bright youthful hue and delivers elegant aromas of fresh flowers, white peaches, sea spray, and soft floral citrus. Medium-bodied, it displays good roundness and delicate spice, with fresh saline minerality, Meyer lemon, and ripe pear. It’s supple and inviting, with a good, refreshing feel, and touch of almond on the finish. Drink it over the next 10 years. This is the first vintage with the appellation printed on the label.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Now utilizing the recently approved West Sonoma Coast appellation (the label used to simply read "Sonoma Coast"), the 2021 Chardonnay West Sonoma Coast has fresh, pure aromas of red apple, bread dough, jasmine and almonds. The light-bodied palate is focused and energetic, with a pleasurable, balancing creaminess to the texture and a long, biscuity finish.
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.