Winemaker Notes
The Durell Vineyard Chardonnay is the ultimate showcase of terroir. It is primarily composed of the old Wente clone, planted in various blocks throughout Durell. Each site expresses unique characteristics—one, on golden sandy soil atop a hillcrest, offers deep concentration, while another is situated at the base of the hillside on rocky soil which provides bright acidity and minerality. This 2018 staple is a rich, luxurious wine, accented with notes of honey-lemon meringue, shortbread, and yellow apple, that is best described as a ray of sunshine in your glass.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a tremendously bright expression from a famous site. It is exuberant in tangy lemon, crushed rock and sea spray, with lasting acidity that tapers it all. Offering a beautiful mix of texture and nuanced earthiness, this is a wholly memorable wine.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Chardonnay Durell Vineyard comes from a site on the Sonoma Coast and it’s a medium to full-bodied, upfront, soft, and ready to go Chardonnay that has impressive melon and buttered citrus-like fruits as well as ample floral nuances. It falls off on the finish, but this still has tons of character and is a joy to drink.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Here is a rich, generously fruited, fairly full-bodied Chardonnay that already displays serious concentration and depth, yet is still very young and a wine with the certain promise to grow better with time. It is dense and slightly fleshy in feel with the structure to grow and grow, and, while weighty, it shows nary a hint of extraneous fat. Finesse and further polish are guaranteed to come with age, and, as impressive as it may be in its youth, it is a cellar worthy offering that deserves to be laid away for at least a few years before being brought to the table as an accompaniment to richer fare such as butter-poached lobster, salmon in sauce or even pan-roasted duck breasts.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Three Sticks Durrell Vineyard Chardonnay is bright and appealing from start to finish. TASTING NOTES: This wine delivers a potpourri of lovely ripe fruit, earth notes, and oak aromas and flavors. Enjoy it with broiled lobster in drawn butter. (Tasted: March 22, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
Three Sticks Wines is a boutique, family-owned winery recognized for pinot noir and chardonnay. Proprietor Bill Price III (nicknamed “Billy Three Sticks”) owns six Grand Cru level estate vineyards in Sonoma County, including three Heritage vineyards–Durell, Gap’s Crown, and Walala and three Monopole vineyards–One Sky, Alana, and William James. An intimate relationship with each property shines through in each of the Three Sticks wines, reflecting a keen understanding of how working with great vineyards, along with a meticulous winemaking style, produces inspiring results.
The Vallejo-Castenada Adobe (built in 1842) was built by Captain Salvador Vallejo, brother of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the Commandante Generale of the northern territory of Mexico (modern day Sonoma). The Prices purchased the property in 2012 and embarked on a two-year preservation project. The Three Sticks team worked with Sonoma historians and the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation to restore and protect the fabric of the property. They commissioned San Francisco-based designer Ken Fulk and his team to design the ambience of the Adobe, as it is known locally. The historic landmark in downtown Sonoma is now home to the hospitality of Three Sticks.
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.
Perhaps the most historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.