Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A light hazy yellow hue, the 2022 Chardonnay Haakon/Lenai Vineyard delivers delicate flint notes along with rocky earth, preserved lemon, bright apples, and concentrated, salty earth. Medium to full-bodied, it has compact intensity, with electricity driving through the palate, and I also love the texture of this wine. Fully dry, with great extract, it has depth and richness without being heavy. It’s a fantastic and age-worthy wine to drink over the next 10-12 years.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2022 Purple Hands CHARDONNAY HAAKON/LENAI VINEYARD DUNDEE HILLS, WILLAMETTE VALLEY reveals a light straw color; vivid minerality lifts into subtle notes of earth, wild mushrooms, and peach fuzz; medium to full bodied, with a luxurious, lingering texture on the palate; stone fruit flavors build with quiet depth; long, composed finish. Pair with roast chicken with morels or a creamy mushroom risotto. (Tasted: March 31, 2026, San Francisco, CA, USA)
-
Decanter
Lean and angular with great mineral salinity and smoky grilled citrus aromas, this Chardonnay is from the Purple Hands organic estate site, planted in 1998—aromatics of grilled lemon peel, lemon grass and crushed slate alongside saline notes of sea breeze. The palate is bright and flashy, with piquant lemon verbena flavours, lemon drop candies, and cardamom spice, which finish the wine with bright, mouthwatering acidity.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Chardonnay Haakon Lenai Vineyard, matured in 30% new oak, is pure and expressive. It has ringing aromas of peach and guava, plus accents of roasted hazelnuts, hay and honey. The medium-bodied palate offers surprisingly concentrated, detailed fruit. It balances bright acidity with a touch of textural grip, and it has a long, expansive finish.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This lemon-scented and mineral-driven Chardonnay has an additional aroma that I can't resist—lavender butter. The flavors are downright tropical, with macadamia nuts, lemon cookies and a dusting of coconut. The wine's texture is smooth and easy, with restrained acidity and a lengthy finish.
-
James Suckling
This is spicy and cedary with ripe stone fruit, walnuts and pie crust. Polished and textured with a medium to full body and mineral undertones. Layered and structured with a lingering, even finish. Drink or hold.
-
Wine Spectator
Precise and handsomely structured, with attractive flavors of pear and apple that take on orange peel and spice tones.
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.