Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Chardonnay has a nose of toasted peach, grapefruit marmalade and hints of pork crackling, with fennel flower, turmeric and stewed apple. In the mouth, the wine is still completely taut, at 14 years old. The lack of malolactic fermentation (house style) holds these wines in suspension somewhat; their evolution is graceful and slow. This wine is very impressive. The acidity retains freshness and verve, but the fruit shows age and savory/tertiary character. Best After 2022
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Wine Spectator
This white is bright, vivid and appealing for its pure pear, peach and citrus flavors, sailing easily over the open-textured finish and showing finesse. Drink now through 2015.
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.
Home to some of Australia’s most elegant and long-lived red and white wines, Margaret River is situated in the farthest reaches of Western Australia. Relatively warm and dry, the region is cooled by breezes from the Indian Ocean. Margaret River takes some inspiration from Bordeaux, producing top-quality Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux Blends with firm structure, mouthwatering acidity, balanced alcohol and notes of herbs and spice. For white wines, refreshing blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon as well as complex, age-worthy Chardonnays are regional specialties.