Winemaker Notes
There’s an untamed acidity that just dominates this wine. Rather than fight this, Trail Marker Wine Co. wanted to celebrate it; in doing so, they didn’t let the wine go through malolactic fermentation. There are flavors of lemon zest, and a flinty minerality with tastes unripe peach and a vibrant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Drew Huffine makes this wine from fruit grown on a sandstone ridge at 2,000 feet in elevation, with a direct view of the Pacific. It has the acidity you might expect from such a location, some of it converted to a creamy richness, some of it maintaining its mineral edge and pointing in a chamomile direction.
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.