Winemaker Notes
The 2020 Hope's Cuvee Chardonnay is a bright, vibrant expression of the Chardonnay fruit from Signorello's oldest estate block. Rich, generous and full bodied, the wine strikes at you right from the first note. The nose greets you with grilled pineapple, juicy mango, honeysuckle, lemon curds, orange blossom and nuanced oak integration. A creamy texture balanced with soft acidity leads to a long, persisting finish of peaches, gooseberries, brioche and toasted nuts. A complex wine that reflects the history of Signorello's 40 year old vineyard block, this will leave you enthralled and captivated.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Hand-harvested at night from vines that sit below the winery site and barrel fermented in approximately 50% new French oak, Signorello's 2020 Chardonnay Hope’s Cuvée is made in a ripe, expansive style that manages to retain a certain amount of freshness. Marked by scents of grilled pear, melon and citrus, it also hints at more savory notes of toasted grain. Full-bodied and creamy textured, it's generous but balanced, with just enough citrus rind coming through on the finish to give this rich wine a sense of equilibrium.
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James Suckling
Ripe apricots, baked apples, spiced pears, pie crust, butterscotch and praline on the nose. It’s full-bodied, ripe and buttery with plenty of praline character. Full and flavorful chardonnay. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
This is supple and creamy, offering an elegant background for lemon curd, tangerine and orange blossom flavors, with a savory thread of sea salt and a hint of vanilla bean that linger 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.
One of the world's most highly regarded regions for wine production as well as tourism, the Napa Valley was responsible for bringing worldwide recognition to California winemaking. In the 1960s, a few key wine families settled the area and hedged their bets on the valley's world-class winemaking potential—and they were right.
The Napa wine industry really took off in the 1980s, when producers scooped up vineyard lands and planted vines throughout the county. A number of wineries emerged, and today Napa is home to hundreds of producers ranging from boutique to corporate. Cabernet Sauvignon is definitely the grape of choice here, with many winemakers also focusing on Bordeaux blends. White wines from Napa Valley are usually Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that claim specific wine characteristics based on situation, slope and soil. Farthest south and coolest from the influence of the San Pablo Bay is Carneros, followed by Coombsville to its northeast and then Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford. Above those are the warm St. Helena and the valley's newest and hottest AVA, Calistoga. These areas follow the valley floor and are known generally for creating rich, dense, complex and smooth red wines with good aging potential. The mountain sub appellations, nestled on the slopes overlooking the valley AVAs, include Stags Leap District, Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley (farther east), Howell Mountain, Mt. Veeder, Spring Mountain District and Diamond Mountain District. Napa Valley wines from the mountain regions are often more structured and firm, benefiting from a lot of time in the bottle to evolve and soften.