Winemaker Notes
Manchester Ridge Chardonnay is a translucent straw, honeydew rind color. Aromas of orange blossom, match stick, and sea air. There is a very bright acidity, structured mineral, and talc. The finish is vibrant and lingering.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
If a California chardonnay could be Zen about its alcohol, this one may be, delivering a wine that’s plump and structured rather than austere (the abv is 12.7 percent). This has the flavor depth of finely ripened fruit, hinting at nectarine, loquat, yellow roses, gingerroot and white tea. But it’s mainly about coastal air. Drew Huffine harvests it from a vineyard he first got to know in 2007, when he was making wine for other wineries. The vines have a direct view of the Pacific from their sandstone ridge 2,000 feet above the ocean, and their fruit impressed him for its flavor expression at low potential alcohol levels (21 to 22 Brix). In fact, it was the fruit from this vineyard that led him and his wife, Emily, to start Trail Marker in 2012. Huffine says the site was relatively immune to the heat waves of 2017. After he crushed the grapes by foot, he let them macerate for four hours before pressing the juice into neutral French oak barrels, where the wine finished primary fermentation the following May. A delicate chardonnay with the freshness of the Pacific is a rare beast; this one is merely 112 cases. I wish there were more—we need more quiet beauty in California chardonnay.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Manchester Ridge Vineyard Chardonnay has a nose of sliced yellow apple, cheese rind, lemon, cream and savory notions of dried leaves and honey. The palate is light to medium-bodied, fresh and clean with a good core of savory fruit and juicy acidity, finishing long. 111 cases produced.
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.
Essentially a northern extension of the Sonoma Coast AVA but part of Mendocino County, Mendocino Ridge is one of the rare appellations defined by elevation only. The Mendocino Ridge AVA is reserved only for vineyards at or above 1,200 feet between the Anderson Valley and Pacific Ocean.