Winemaker Notes
Another blockbuster West Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. The aroma is captivating with golden delicious apple. Inflections of cooked and candied lemon pop about as you breathe in. The palate is seamless and gorgeous with silky roundness on a spine of minerality and acidity.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of lemon confit, grapefruit, lime oil and sea spray. The medium-bodied palate has a creamy mouthfeel supported with vibrant acidity and balanced by a nice phenolic grip. So focused and pure. High energy and tension.
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay (West Sonoma Coast) is a classy, elegant wine. Pear, white flowers, white pepper, marzipan and a kiss of new oak all meld together effortlessly. Creamy and understated, with terrific balance, the 2023 has a lot to offer.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay West Sonoma Coast has inviting scents of yellow apple, meringue, toast and crème brûlée. The medium-bodied palate features expressive, spicy apple fruit and saline tones. It’s structured by bright acidity and has a long, energetic 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.