Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
No new barrels were used in 2022, but there was a once-used puncheon that Paul used, 10 months in oak on lees. This Chardonnay is from the TBH Vineyard but is not a single vineyard classified as it's from blocks the winemaking team haven't designated for TBH—ethereal aromas of lemon curd, wet slate and minerality driven by purity of sea spray. The palate demonstrates a balance of fruit and elegance, smoky citrus, brilliant lemon drop notes and a saline salt air finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A brilliant silver straw color, the 2022 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is fresh, dewy, and lightly flinty on the nose, with notes of citrus blossom, chive, wet stones, and green apples. It’s medium-bodied, full of life, and citrus-driven, with salted lemon lime and a white floral note on the balance. The oak frames the wine not in its flavors but rather in its elegant texture. Aged in all neutral wood, it has a Chablis-like feel. Drink 2024-2030.
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.