Winemaker Notes
Minerality and density are indicative of this cool, high-elevation AVA. This viticultural neighborhood hugs the Pacific Ocean, creating wines of startling freshness and liveliness.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A bright silver/yellow color, the 2022 Chardonnay Fort Ross-Seaview is so energetic out of the gate, with a fantastic flinty lift, along with notes of lemon-lime zest and fresh pear. The palate is focused and bright, with lovely electricity, elegant ripeness, and a beautifully tapering finish with a note of salty earth.
-
James Suckling
Flavors of key limes and lemon curd burst from this well-balanced, tangy, acid-driven wine as it lights up the palate. Despite a full body, it shows freshness, vibrancy and concentration, with hints of oak spices, vanilla bean and custard that echo on the finish.
-
Vinous
The 2022 Chardonnay (Fort Ross-Seaview) is a very pretty wine. Jasmine, tangerine peel, mint and light tropical notes all run through this expressive, nuanced Chardonnay. All of this fruit is from the Martinelli family's Charles Ranch, a site most producers bottle as a vineyard designate.
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.