Winemaker Notes
Rosemary’s Chardonnay is the most elegant expression of Talley Vineyards. Planted in 1987, Rosemary’s Vineyard is climatically their coolest estate vineyard and produces a nuanced Chardonnay with aromatic appeal. The 2020 vintage is long and complex on the palate with lingering notes of fresh orange and nectarine.
This premiere Chardonnay opens with aromas of lemon verbena, white peach, wet sidewalk and cracked almond. Flavors of nectarine, beeswax, orange blossom water, Meyer lemon and peach skin unfold into a long, lively finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Clean aromas of nectarine, Asian pear and honeysuckle are delicate yet expressive on the nose of this bottling. There's a firm and chalky tension to the palate, where pear, white melon and lemon flavors are amplified by hints of baking spice.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lots of tropical fruits, honeyed apple, spice, and floral notes emerge from the 2020 Chardonnay Rosemary's Vineyard, another estate release that was brought up in around one-third new French oak. It too is medium-bodied, racy, and pure, with good balance as well as length.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Sharing a certain structural tightness that is evident in all of the Talley 2020 offerings, the Rosemary’s Vineyard bottling, more than most, clearly calls for some age. It takes its time in opening up and reveals considerably more depth and richness as it does, but it is hampered by a bit of youthful coarseness that works against immediate enjoyment. Though it currently lacks polish, especially on the back end, it is so deep, well-filled and insistent that its angles and edges do little to shake our faith in its future. It is one of several Talley Chardonnays that are best held for drinking two or three years or more down the line.
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.
One of the coolest growing areas in California, the Arroyo Grande Valley runs from the southwest to the northeast, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Central Coast AVA. Situated so that cold Pacific Ocean air and fog is allowed to filter into the valley, Arroyo Grande also has an incredibly long growing season. Bud break occurs in February in most years with flowering in May and harvest in late September; the area is classified as cool Mediterranean.
These weather factors combined with the soil types—continental and marine rocks, greywacke, limestone, shale and volcanic—create wines with great concentration and fresh acidity. The cooler end of the valley is perfect for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and is a good producer of sparkling wines. The warmer, more inland part of the valley is home to some of California’s oldest Zinfandel vines.