Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A handy mix of ripe fruits in the melon and peach zone with some cool-handed tension. Spiced peach custard flavors and a gently creamy, fresh finish with warming toasted hazelnut notes. Drink now.
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Wine Spectator
Ultrarich and concentrated, with layers of fruit complexity built around green apple, pear, melon, apricot and peach flavors. A real mouthful of full-bodied Chardonnay, showing a seam of elegance. Drink now through 2021.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Suave and sophisticated, the formidable 2015 Sonoma-Loeb El Novillero Chardonnay deftly combines concentrated ripe fruit, teeth-biting minerality, and appealing savory spices into flavors that are meant to be together. Pair this wine with a Cantonese preparation of Dungeness crab with ginger and scallions. (Tasted: December 24, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chardonnay El Novillero Vineyard seems a little shy at this youthful stage, revealing delicate hints of guava, melons and apricots with hints of allspice and aniseed. The medium-bodied palate offers a gorgeous satiny texture with great freshness supporting the generous melon and savory/yeasty flavors, finishing with the spiciness coming through.
Rating: 91+
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.