Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Roserock Chardonnay conveys a sense of power and elegance. A dense richness is apparent on approach with aromas of dried lemon, sweet-pastry, and Linden flower and Chamomile undertones. Full-bodied and focused, the wine displays supple firmness and excellent depth.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Roserock lies on the southern reaches of the Eola–Amity Hills near the outskirts of Salem, Oregon’s state capital. It’s a large vineyard, planted mostly to pinot noir save for about 11 acres of chardonnay planted a little over a decade ago. Those vines grew an opulent wine in 2018, made firm and shapely by the coolness of the site and of the Oregon summer. It leads with scents of honey and peach, and has a hazelnut breadth. It’s built like a Beaune wine (no surprise there); for a chicken fricassee.
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James Suckling
Some attractive, fresh bread dough here with aromas of clotted cream, poached pears and almond milk. The palate has a smooth outer frame (full MLF here) with a fresh, fleshy core that has supple fruit texture. Drink now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Drouhin Oregon's Eola-Amity Hills Roserock vineyard is maturing nicely, as this rich, almost unctuous new Chardonnay demonstrates. Rippled with butterscotch around fruit flavors of apples and nectarines, this tasty bottle is buoyed with Meyer lemon acidity, and accented with whiffs of toasted hazelnuts.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay offers bright, fresh apple fruit with deeper, more savory bass notes of honeycomb, almonds and spice. The medium-bodied palate is super silky and bursts with tensile, mineral-laced fruits, expanding into a long, juicy and gently honeyed finish.
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Wine Spectator
Steely and vibrant, with pinpoint notes of green apple and grapefruit and a trace of flint on the long, crisp 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.
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.