Winemaker Notes
The 2021 fills the glass with radiant, elegant aromas and flavors of melon, honeysuckle, apricot, pineapple, and flint all held together with lithe structure, pitch-perfect balance, and energy that comes from pure, elegant acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This full-bodied and beautifully balanced wine is powered by energized fruit acidity. Vivid green-apple and lemon zest flavors, and a snappy finish. Subtle oak notes remain secondary. Fermented in both oak barrels and stainless steel, and matured without maloactic conversion, the wine is superrefreshing, clean and mouthwatering.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Chardonnay Red Shoulder Ranch is another winner that has a slightly fresh, more vibrant style in its lemon and citrus fruits as well as honeyed minerality and spice. Medium-bodied, balanced, and elegant, it’s going to put on weight with a year or two of bottle age and should keep through 2031.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Always an impressive bottling, the 2021 Chardonnay Red Shoulder Ranch was barrel fermented in a 75% new French oak and 25% stainless steel. Boasting fabulous aromas of lemon curd, apple, pear and pencil shavings, this non-malolactic Chardonnay is full-bodied, round and generous on the palate, then crisp and refreshing on the finish. If it's not as complex or rich as the very best Chardonnays California has to offer, it's not that far behind. Best After 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Impressive, this white starts off broad, with a generous mix of salted ripe melon, citrus and stone fruit flavors, but then focuses on a sleek, juicy core, revealing snappy acidity and crushed rock on the finish.
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.