Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pure perfection in California Chardonnay, the 2017 Chardonnay Point Rouge comes from a selection of the top barrels in the vintage. It too is rich and powerful, yet it has an incredible sense of minerality as well as a huge perfume of exotic flowers, orange blossom, crushed rock, salty sea breeze, and earth. As with most wines in the vintage, it has an incredible purity of fruit as well as integrated yet bright, racy acidity. It's a thrill a minute and is going to come together nicely with a year or two of bottle age and keep for over a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Point Rouge slowly releases scents of candied ginger and citrus peel before being coaxed into giving up loads of savory suggestions of pie crust, shaved almonds and bread dough with a core of peach preserves, honey-drizzled pears and lemon tart plus a hint of crème caramel. Medium to full-bodied, the satiny palate possesses bags of poise and finesse with softly spoken freshness and loads of savory/toasty layers, finishing long with compelling mineral notes coming through. Already a WOW wine, I can't wait to see this after 3-4 years in bottle. 270 cases were made.
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.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.