Winemaker Notes
The Heintz family has owned the ranch for over 100 years. Ideal Goldridge soil, healthy, mature vines, warm days balanced with cool nights and a grower who has been working the land since 1982 all contribute to Robert Parker's assessment of the vineyard as "...one of the great grand cru Chardonnay sites in California."
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Such great complexity here. It smells like Grand Cru Burgundy, showing cool, pure apples with hints of pie crust, flint and smoke. Full-bodied with layers of fruit and incredible length. A superb Sonoma Coast chardonnay from one of the best chardonnay vineyards in California. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This elegant and mineral-driven native fermented Chardonnay brings aromas of river stones, chalk, white flowers and Meyer lemon on the nose. The palate possesses a wave of vibrant acidity with flavors of green pear, pineapple sage, pithy lemon and saline that echo across a long finish.
Cellar Selection -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard is lifted and bright on the nose with flinty wet stones. It has classic ripeness in its expressive notes of pineapple, lime candies, ripe green apples, and the fresh fruit of the site. Full-bodied, it retains a linear, fresh feel, with salty earth, bright acidity, and a clean, even finish. Drink 2025-2037.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard has open-knit aromas of apples, pie crust, beeswax, allspice and panna cotta. The medium-bodied palate is silky and weightless, balancing concentrated, savory flavors with gently tangy acidity, and it has a very long, spicy finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard is all class. Aromatic, light on its feet and finely sketched, the 2023 has so much to offer. Sweet floral notes meld into a core of lemon confit, marzipan, dried flowers and chamomile. I wish all the wines in the range were this distinctive.
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.