Winemaker Notes
This Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is a rich, medium straw color. You are greeted with stone fruit aromas of white peach and nectarine, oak spice with hints of clove, toasted nuts, a touch of caramel, and light honeydew. The creamy richness of this medium-bodied wine boasts ripe pear and Golden Delicious apple. This wine is a classic, elegantly structured Chardonnay with lots of finesse and focused balance from start to finish. You will find Sonoma-Cutrer's signature bright acidity with nice length and a soft mid-palate that rounds out to a pleasant, long finish of lingering barrel spice.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This silky, creamy wine offers subtle layers of vanilla, white peaches and baked apples in the aroma, followed by lush, honeyed peaches and pineapple slices on the palate. Although full bodied, the wine’s texture is elegant and light.
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Wine Spectator
Appealing for its seamlessness and texture, this white is creamy and supple, with lemon meringue pie, shortbread and peach notes at the core on an elegant frame. Accents of lemon zest and wildflower honey linger on the finish. Drink now. 200,000 cases made.
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.