Winemaker Notes
This wine is stylish and freshly balanced, featuring a light, pale straw presence in the glass with a bouquet of fresh orange citrus, toasted pine nuts, mild allspice, rocky flints, and toasted oak. Crisp, savory pineapple, sweet delicious apple, savory stone fruit, and ripe pear lead into mouthwatering deliciousness.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Brown Ranch Vineyard has alluring notes of honey drizzled peaches, ripe Bosc pears and pineapple tart with hints of almond croissant, cashews and candied ginger. Medium-bodied, the palate has soft acid and bags of stone fruit and tropical fruit flavors with a long spicy finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Leading off with the sole white, the 2017 Chardonnay Brown Ranch Vineyard offers plenty of melon and honeyed tropical fruit notes as well as subtle spice and brioche notes. It's rich, medium to full-bodied, and nicely textured.
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.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.