Winemaker Notes
Coming from a special vineyard site, the 2018 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay shows great depth of flavor, length of finish, aromatic complexity, and a fine balance between richness and delicacy. This vineyard has a typically cool climate, low vigor soil, and a vine selection that generates small berries, small clusters and inherently low yields.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Chardonnay Fort Ross-Seaview is another classic wine, offering ample honeyed orchard and lemon-like fruits, medium-bodied richness, a bright spine of acidity, and a great finish. Just textbook Sonoma Coast goodness, it's ideal for drinking over the coming 5-7 years.
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Wine Spectator
A glistening and fresh style, with minerally cut to the pippin apple and Asian pear flavors. The lightly spiced finish lingers with hints of dried tarragon.
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.
On the far western edge of the larger Sonoma Coast appellation, the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA hugs right up against the Pacific coast. Vineyards, planted at rugged elevations between 920 to 1,800 feet, occupy only two percent of the total land in the AVA. Fort Ross-Seaview growers believe that the region boasts an ideal mix of sunshine, cool air and beneficial stress for producing high quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir.