Winemaker Notes
Golden-hued, beautifully aromatic and inviting from the first sip, then rewarded with passion fruit, apple blossom, pie crust and gunpowder in a kaleidoscope of flavor. Medium-bodied with an understated suggestion of richness that brings this
single-vineyard to a resounding crescendo.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of white peaches and cooked apples with honey and lilac undertones. It’s full-bodied, yet remains so lively and layered with some cookie and apple skin at the end. Some licorice and aniseed here, too.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Starting with the 2018 Chardonnay Frenchman Hills, its medium gold hue is followed by a rich, medium to full-bodied, opulent Chardonnay offering plenty of caramelized stone fruits, toasted hazelnuts, and brioche. Young and unevolved, give bottles another year or two, and it's capable of evolving for at least 7-8 years.
Rating: 93+ -
Wine Spectator
Offers polish and structure with vibrant nectarine, lemon verbena and spice flavors that fan out on the savory 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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.