Winemaker Notes
Pale straw in color, this Les Pierres Chardonnay opens with vivid aromas of lemon zest,
wet stone, key lime pie, white blossom, and light cedar oak, touched by warm pie crust.
The palate is bright and juicy, showing lemon curd, lime, and mineral, layered with
toasted nuts, tamarind, and sweet oak spice.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lushness and ripeness come with matching precision and detail in this well-balanced, tensioned wine. A bracing, almost grippy aspect to the texture lifts the indulgent poached pear and vanilla bean flavors for good balance, drive and length. As one of the early top chardonnays in Sonoma County, it's still a gem.
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.