Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This Chardonnay is intense, feeling as tight as a steel spring. It shows how well the Santa Rita Hills ripens grapes, while maintaining vital acidity. Just massive in orange, pineapple, apricot and golden mango flavors, with a firm, steely minerality. Despite the richness, the finish is totally dry.
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Wine Spectator
This intense white shows a rich, vibrant, concentrated core of citrus-laced green apple and green pineapple flavors. This is refreshing, clean and snappy, ending with a lift that lingers. Drink now through 2020.
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 superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.