Winemaker Notes
The 2016 vintage proved to be an excellent one for Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Continued drought conditions led to tight cluster formation and smaller berries, resulting in wines with a concentration that rivaled 2015. The 2016 Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay benefited greatly from these conditions, in addition to the careful stewardship of the land by the Sangiacomo family.
Two blocks of Old Wente Clone Chardonnay from older vines were blended with a younger block of Dijon Clone 95. The resulting Chardonnay offers complex layers of texture and flavors. An even weather pattern allowed the grapes to maintain bright levels of acidity. The finished wine is fresh, lively and fruit forward, with citrus and apple aromas that leave your mouth watering.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay Sangiacomo Vineyard offers up notions of ripe peaches, pineapple and guava with hints of honeycomb, cashews and orange blossom. Medium-bodied and bursting with stone fruit and tropical flavor layers, it has a lovely satiny texture and racy acid line, finishing nuanced with chalk and mineral notions.
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Tasting Panel
Juicy with mineral notes and ripe pear; elegant and balanced; long, fresh, and stylish with finesse and nuance; the first wine from the family farming this worldfamous vineyard.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is an intense, bright and focused wine aged in 30% new oak and made from well-farmed moderately ripe fruit. A salty element rides along with lemon and apple, a touch of melon at the door.
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.