Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A perennial standout, this is an exuberantly rich, classic expression of the variety, with the heady, unmistakable imprint of the producer and vineyard. Expansive and generous in style, it offers baked honeycrisp apple and a jolt of lemon pith, with aromas of honeysuckle and vanilla. The finish is lengthy and substantial, with memorable minerality.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Shafer’s Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnays will never be accused of being thin and wiry, and this latest bottling comes with all of the accustomed ripeness and fully-expressed fruit that we have come to expect. It is, however, far from being over the top and sports a good deal of brightness in counterpoint to its riper traits. While fairly long at the finish, it is also both slightly hot and a touch coarse just now, and twelve more months in the bottle will help iron out its minor wrinkles.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Chardonnay program from Shafer includes the Red Shoulder Ranch, which is aged 14 months in 75% new French oak and 25% in stainless steel. The 2013 yields wonderfully crisp, rich white peach, honeysuckle and pineapple as well as some crushed rock and floral notes. Medium to full-bodied, it has great acidity and a nice integration of subtle oak. Drink it over the next several years.
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Wine Spectator
A vibrant, juicy style built to age, this teems with tight grapefruit, lemon and lime-laced citrus flavors, offering a refreshingly clean and precise core of green apple and nectarine notes. Shows no sign of malolactic fermentation, keeping this fresh and lively.
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.