Winemaker Notes
Citrus, melon, pear, and wild flowers - the 2017 Santa Clara Vallet Chardonnay is a delicious testament to this historic vineyard. On the nose and palate, melon, pear, honeysuckle, and Meyer lemon are framed by touches of walnut, vanilla and spice. Bright food pairing acidity and a light touch of oak complete the picture for their estate grown Chardonnay.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Richly spiced and broad-textured, with lilting snap pea hints to the pear tart and apple turnover flavors. Offers a plush, creamy finish, showing roasted pineapple accents. Drink now through 2021.
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.
Home to some of California’s most influential winemaking pioneers of the late 1800s, Paul Masson and Charles Lefranc, the Santa Clara Valley AVA hugs up against the southwestern border of today’s famous Silicon Valley and excels in the production of bold reds, as well as some whites.