Winemaker Notes
Wonderfully energetic and admirably concentrated, the 2017 Staglin Chardonnay expresses an alluring citrus spectrum of ripe Lisbon and Meyer lemon that evolves to reveal delightful Bosc and Green Anjou pear notes with highlights of wintergreen and honeysuckle and mineralized by a pinch of Maldon salt and bow rosin. Simultaneously crystalline and creamy, this lissome wine delights from beginning to end.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
This estate makes a fabulous Chardonnay and their 2017 Chardonnay Estate sports a medium-gold hue as well as richer notes of baked stone fruits, toasty oak, crème brûlée, and a touch of toasted bread. Despite its richer style, it’s more medium-bodied on the palate, has solid acidity, and a balanced, beautifully textured profile. It’s going to drink nicely for at least 4-6 years.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There is nothing shy about the 2017 Chardonnay Estate! It bursts from the glass with a rip-snorting, beautifully boisterous nose of warm apple pie, peach cobbler and pink grapefruit with hints of cedar, lime blossoms, lightly browned toast and crème caramel. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers great texture and tension, giving mouth-filling apple and citrus flavors and finishing on a lingering savory note. Yum!
-
Wine Spectator
Light smoky notes accent the firm and spicy dried apple, pear and dried mango flavors in this broad, powerful version. Hints of chamomile and verbena show on the finish.
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.
The Rutherford sub-region of Napa Valley centers on the town of Rutherford and covers some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard real estate, spanning from the Mayacamas in the west, to the Vaca Mountains on the other side of the valley.
Inside of the Rutherford AVA, bordering the Mayacamas, is a stretch of uplands called the Rutherford Bench. (These bench lands technically run the length of Oakville as well). Mountain runoff creates deep, well-drained, alluvial soils on the bench, giving vine roots plenty of reason to permeate deep into the ground. The result is wine with great structure and complexity.
Rutherford Cabernet Sauvingons and Bordeaux Blends garner substantial attention for their enticing fragrances of dusty earth and dried herbs, broad and juicy mid-palates and lush and fine-grained tannins. The sub-appellation claims some of the valley’s most prized vineyards today, namely Caymus, Rubicon and Beckstoffer Georges III.
It is also home to Napa’s most influential and historic personalities. Thomas Rutherford, responsible for the appellation's name, made serious investments here in grape growing and wine production between the years of 1850 to 1880. Gustave Niebaum purchased a large swath of land and completed his winery in 1887, calling it “Inglenook.” Today this remains the oldest bonded winery in California. Georges Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900, making it the oldest continuous winery in the state. Latour also hired the famous enologist, André Tchelistcheff, a man credited for single-handedly defining the modern Napa winemaking style.