Winemaker Notes
Aromas of lemon meringue with toasted brioche, layers of fresh nectarine, and peach compote mingle with crushed white rose petal and chai spice. Bright yet weighty with a viscous mid-palate, this chardonnay boasts a delicious richness of fresh white peaches and nectarine flavors and lemon meringue balanced by a mineral-driven, clean finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Bright citrus and tropical fruits as well as honeysuckle, sappy flower, and green almond notes all emerge from the 2019 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast, a lively, medium-bodied, elegant Chardonnay that shows the house style and quality to a T.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast opens slowly to aromas of saline, crushed almonds, hay and toast, with apple fruit at the core. The palate is medium-bodied and deeply fruited with bright freshness and mineral touches, finishing long and gently yeasty.
-
Wine Spectator
Flavors of pineapple, white flowers and candied ginger are fresh and fragrant, with melon, peach and lemon thyme notes on the long, juicy finish. Drink now.
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.