Winemaker Notes
Purple Hands is a low intervention, purity-driven winery. Our Dundee Reserve Chardonnay is stainless steel and concrete fermented, and aged on the lees for 10 months. It goes through full malolactic fermentation. Wines are bottled un-fined and unfiltered to retain the honesty of the vineyard and the vintage.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fresh and vibrant medium- to light-bodied wine fermented in stainless and concrete. On the nose, lemon oil, mixed citrus, lanolin, wet stones and fresh herbs. The palate is also super fresh and citrusy, with hints of creme brulee, a little brioche richness in the middle and a tangy, zesty finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
full-bodied Chardonnay, with deep flavors of apple, pear and yeasty spices that build richness and tension on the 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.
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.