Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Buttery and rich, featuring concentrated flavors of pear, apple compote and baked peach, with tropical notes. A full-bore style that is filled with spiciness. The finish lingers with cream and toasted coconut accents. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Chardonnay Fermata (which is the Italian word for "halted") went through partial malolactic fermentation and was brought up in 20-25% new French oak. It's a big, rich, buttery, medium to full-bodied effort that offers lots of fig, white currants and vanilla bean aromas and flavors. It's not for those looking for unoaked Chablis, but it has a beautiful texture, solid mid-palate depth and delivers serious richness, all while not being over the top or heavy. I'd drink it over the coming 3-4 years, but wouldn't be surprised to see it keep longer.
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 geographic and climatic paradise for grape vines, Monterey is a part of the greater Central Coast AVA and contains within it five smaller sub-appellations, including Arroyo Seco, San Lucas, San Bernabe, Hames Valley and the famous Santa Lucia Highlands. The climate is relatively warm but tempered by cool, coastal winds, allowing the regions in Monterey County an exceptionally long growing season. Bud break often happens two weeks sooner and harvest tends to be two weeks later compared to other surrounding regions.
Monterey’s coastal side, where the cooling ocean fog allows grapes to develop a perfect sugar-acid balance, excels in the production of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. Warmer, inland subzones are home to fleshy, concentrated and full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Chardonnay, covering about 40% of vineyard acreage, is the most widely planted grape in all of Monterey County.