Winemaker Notes
The smaller berries of the 2020 vintage have resulted in higher fruit concentration and adding a little extra plushness. This opens to ripe creamy aromas with fresh flavors of lychee, tangerine, Asian pear and a little nutty brioche. The wine is rich and light, and beautifully balanced. There are lively lemon flavors accented by creamy aromas. The long succulent apple pie-finish is topped off with melon, subtropical fruits, and a touch of butterscotch right on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Luxurious in texture and ripe in flavor, this well-oaked and nicely buttery wine from winemaker Nick Goldschmidt exudes richness from the first whiff of caramel to the flavors of poached pear to a lingering finish. Fermented in stainless steel, the wine went through full malolactic to soften and enhance the butter, and then aged in oak barrels for nine months.
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.
A standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.