Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The star is the 2007 Chardonnay Upper Barn, which was made famous when Helen Turley used to make this wine for her Marcassin label. From this great grand cru site, this powerful Chardonnay reveals notes of popcorn, citrus, nectarine, and lemon blossom. Made from the old Heritage Wente clone (as are many of California’s top Chardonnays), it possesses plenty of minerality, a big, full-bodied mouthfeel, good acidity, and a long finish. Drink this profound Chardonnay over the next 5-6 years. Stonestreet is becoming an excellent source for small lots of Chardonnay, although the basic Alexander Valley cuvee is very plentiful (6,500 cases). The single vineyard offerings (between 120 and 350 cases produced of each) are impressive efforts that are more similar than dissimilar since they all come from single vineyard lots, are aged in 50% new French oak (except for the Gravel Bench), and spend 11 months on their lees before bottling.
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Wine Enthusiast
This vineyard has a long, distinguished history, even before it passed into Jackson Family's hands. It's a great mountain property, yielding focused, concentrated flavors of tropical fruits that are well oaked. There's also a firm minerality. One of the few Chards that can age.
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 to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.