Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tor’s block of the Durell vineyard is on the “Sand Hill” section of the vineyard, looking down on the Sonoma Valley. The soil is Goulding clay loam, mixed with diatomaceous earth, and millions of years ago, it formed a sand bar reaching into the prehistoric lake that covered the town of Sonoma. Tor favors the Wente clone in this vineyard, which is a selection of plant material that sets a small crop with small berries. The result is a high skin-to-flesh ratio and great concentration of varietal character. The single new barrel cooper used is Saury. The 2016 Tor Chardonnay Durell Vineyard is closed on the nose, giving lemon peel, grapefruit, slate, white peaches and baking bread aromas. Full-bodied, it's rich, satiny and spicy in the mouth with a long, savory finish.
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James Suckling
A chardonnay with dried apples, hints of yogurt and cream. Full-bodied, creamy and velvety-textured. Balanced and juicy finish. A little tight now. Drink in 2019.
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Wine Spectator
Heavily oaky, toasty and smoky, leesy too, folding in with fig, melon, apricot and charry oak notes, ending full, deep and persistent. Drink now through 2023.
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.