Winemaker Notes
The wine fills the bowl with floral notes of lemon zest, crushed gravel, white and yellow flowers, honeysuckle and just-ripe nectarine. On the palate, these aromas come together with notes of zesty lime blossom and stone fruits, all integrated seamlessly with a bright backbone of wet rock minerality, and subtle notes of salinity that all lead to an incredibly bright and persistent finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A light-bodied yet oh-so-full-flavored wine that opens with stony, floral aromas that lead to fresh and ripe fruit flavors backed by racy acidity. A great creamy texture but vivid in acid, minerals and chalk that lift the pear, citrus and white flower flavors. So elegant and lively, yet full of flavor and marked by a lingering finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Chardonnay Lady Marjorie is a cuvée dedicated to Carlo and Dante’s grandmother. It’s bright, salty, and savory in this vintage, with a crystalline feel to its fresh notes of Anjou pear, lime leaf, savory lime oils, wet stones, and beeswax. The palate is focused and long, with electric salty lift, bright acidity, and a silky richness of concentration. They have really improved the quality of their Chardonnay. I used to think they were more Chenin-like and slightly oxidative in style, but I love that these are coming into focus. An age-worthy vintage.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay Lady Marjorie has pure, alluring scents of yellow apple, quince, lemon blossom, beeswax and oyster shell. The light-bodied palate is soft and silky with flint and saline-laced flavors. It’s enlivened by vibrant acidity and has a long, elegant finish.
As winemakers and farmers, Carlo and Dante attribute a great deal of what they have learned to their grandfather Robert and father Tim, both whom influenced them from a young age.
Carlo and Dante’s father Tim was a pioneer for California Pinot Noir in the early 1970s and has always had a tremendous regard for the great wines of Burgundy. To this day his Pinot Noirs from the 1970s are showing incredibly well. Carlo and Dante credit their father’s passion for Pinot Noir as the early inspiration that got them excited at a young age.
Dante studied abroad in Switzerland at the Webster University in Genève as well at UC Davis in California. Carlo studied in France at the University of Aix-en-Provence and in Italy at the University of Milan. After their formal studies were complete Carlo and Dante continued their educational work with the winemaking team lead by their father Tim Mondavi at Robert Mondavi Winery and Opus One.
When Robert Mondavi Winery was sold in 2004, the brothers joined their father Tim, Aunt-Marcia and grandfather Robert as they founded Continuum in 2005.
In 2013 Carlo and Dante founded RAEN winery with the goal to produce world class Pinot Noir on the western hills of the Sonoma Coast. RAEN currently focuses on making three Pinot Noirs, from three unique sites on the Sonoma Coast.
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.