Winemaker Notes
Dundee Hills Chardonnay is a mix of all the Chardonnay clones on our property. Whole cluster pressed to mitigate phenolics, delicate aromatics leap out of the glass. Showing notes of ripe pear, candied lemon, and jasmine on the nose, the palate is vibrant yet succulent. Flavors of mandarin orange, baked apple, and ginger along with hints of wet stone fill the front and mid-palate. The initial vibrancy winds down to a long soft finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of red and green apple, pear, grapefruit and crushed sage. Medium-bodied. A hint of complex hazelnut character grounds the crisp fruit. Powdery tannins at the finish. Nicely composed and long.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine, a departure in style from most Stoller bottlings, is fermented in concrete cubes and transferred to stainlesssteel tanks to rest on the lees. It’s bright and mineral-savory at the outset, nutty from lees contact. There’s plenty of fruit too, golden pear and apple, with a firmed-up texture for something luxurious, like grouper.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is strikingly crisp, fresh, juicy and loaded with tart lemon, orange and grapefruit flavors. It's high in acidity but in the best possible way, washing over the palate with generous fruit and cleansing minerality. It was fermented in stainless steel, with a small proportion in concrete.
Located in the heart of Oregon's Willamette Valley in the Dundee Hills AVA, Stoller uniquely offers world class wines and genuine hospitality in a stunning setting. Owners Bill and Cathy Stoller purchased the nearly 400 acre property, which was originally his family’s turkey farm, in 1993 and crafted the winery’s inaugural Pinot Noir in 2001. Their vision of innovation blending vineyard stewardship with environmental sustainability was recognized in 2006 when Stoller became the first LEED® certified winemaking facility in the United States attaining the rare Gold level certification. Today, the winery features panoramic views including Mt. Hood, ample outdoor space for relaxation and guest houses.
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.
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.