Country: | United States |
Regions: | California California (Sonoma County) |
Winery: | MacRostie Winery |
Grape Type: | Chardonnay |
Organic: | Yes |
Vintage: | 2019 |
Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Bydand Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is made from 100% Chardonnay
Aged for 16 months in 30% new French oak, 70% neutral French oak
Farmed by one of California’s most respected and longest operating grape-growing families, the Roberts Road Vineyard is located in the Petaluma Gap. Sitting on well draining gravel soils, coastal winds allow for a long, slow and even growing season. Planted in 1998 these Dijon 95 grapes provide minerality and vibrancy to a full-bodied wine with impressive purity of flavor and mouth-feel. French oak barrels add subtle toast to aromas of pear, stone fruits and white citrus.
Ferren Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
The Sonoma Coast bottling is a blend of barrels from Ferren's single vineyard offerings; Lancel Creek, Silver Eagle, Volpert, and Frei Road Vineyards. The wine is always somewhat more approachable early in its life as less new oak is used in the blend. Pure and translucent fruit is the hallmark of this cuvée. Citrus, quince, sea spray, and minerals are buoyed by refreshing acidity and a seamless finish.
Ferren Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
The Sonoma Coast bottling is a blend of barrels from Ferren's single vineyard offerings; Lancel Creek, Silver Eagle, Volpert, and Frei Road Vineyards. The wine is always somewhat more approachable early in its life as less new oak is used in the blend. Pure and translucent fruit is the hallmark of this cuvée. Citrus, quince, sea spray, and minerals are buoyed by refreshing acidity and a seamless finish.
Sojourn Chardonnay Sangiacomo Vineyard is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
The core of Sojourn Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay is from the same vineyard source as the highly-acclaimed Sojourn Sangiacomo Vineyard Pinot noir wines. This wine features a combination of Clone 95 Chardonnay from Sangiacomo Roberts Road Vineyard and Old Wente Clone from Sangiacomo Vella Ranch. The Roberts Road block, planted in 1998, provides minerality and vibrancy. The Old Wente Clone selection is known to produce distinctively small clusters, low yields, and results in elegant, complex wines that round out this blend. These ranches are perfectly suited for growing Chardonnay, with cool climates and well-draining soils.
Sojour Chardonnay is fresh and lively, fruit-forward with bright acidity, stone fruit, citrus and apple flavors that leave your mouth watering.
Evening Land Seven Springs Vineyard Summum Chardonnay is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
Summum Chardonnay is the unofficial tête de cuvée of our lineup at Evening Land Vineyards. Fruit for Summum comes from just 14 vine rows that form the backbone of the Seven Springs Estate. Here, soils were formed by ancient volcanic eruptions that sent blazing lava down the current vineyard’s slopes – and today, we’re lucky enough to farm our vines in these mineral-laden soils. The 2019 Summum Chardonnay is medium-bodied and bright, marked by flavors of lemon skin, baked apple, and a touch of sweet spice that leads to a satiny, harmonious finish. For a unique taste of Oregon’s rather untapped potential for high-end Chardonnay, this bottle is it.
Review:
Shows dimension and presence, with elegantly multilayered flavors of Meyer lemon, apple skin, yeasty lees and crushed stone that gather richness and steely opulence on the lingering finish. Drink now
-Wine Spectator 95 Points
Morlet Family Vineyards Coteaux Nobles Pinot Noir is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
Very intense raspberry and kirsch flavors with earthy notes (graphite), rich, round and seamless with a very fruity lingering finish. Will age gracefully for a decade.
Located on the Sonoma Coast, on the Eastern slope of the second ridge from the Pacific Ocean, this unique hillside vineyard benefits from both the cool maritime breeze and the mild and sunny mountain climate. Handcrafted by using classical Burgundian techniques, it is the ‘Noble Hillsides’ or ‘Côteaux Nobles.’
Reviews:
The Coteaux Nobles Pinot Noir comes from 28-year-old vines planted at the Nobles Ranch vineyard in Fort Ross-Seaview AVA. A barrel sample, the pale to medium ruby-purple colored 2019 Pinot Noir Coteaux Nobles slips sensuously out of the glass with a provocative perfume of red currant jelly, raspberry preserves and rhubarb crumble with suggestions of violets and fallen leaves plus a waft of mossy tree bark. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with juicy red berry layers, supported by plush tannins and seamless freshness, finishing on a lingering earthy note
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 94-96 Points
MacRostie Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay always delivers something special and unique, and this vintage is no exception. Both intricate and exotic, this wine begins with alluring fruit aromas of Meyer lemon and fresh pineapple. On the palate, a round, rich mouthfeel accentuates Wildcat’s signature high-tone notes of honey and spice. At the same time, thanks to Wildcat’s windy growing conditions, which thicken the grape skins, it has engaging structure and body.
Review:
The 2019 Chardonnay Wildcat Mountain showed nicely, with a reductive, mineral-laced, medium-bodied style as well as pretty citrus and stone fruits, lots of white flowers, and subtle spice and nuttiness, integrated acidity, and light background oak. It's well worth following over the coming 4-6 years.
-Jeb Dunnuck 91 Points
Rich and well-structured, with honeyed accents to the apple and pear tart flavors. Toasty and light buttery accents linger on the spicy finish. Drink now through 2024. 809 cases made.
-Wine Spectator 91 Points
Over the past three decades, MacRostie Winery and Vineyards has established itself as one of the Sonoma Coast’s defining wineries, and a leader in a bright, balanced and age-worthy style of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Today, MacRostie is guided by Sonoma County visionary and winery founder Steve MacRostie, and talented winemaker Heidi Bridenhagen, who together are making the finest wines in the winery’s storied history.
Using grapes farmed by legendary winegrowing families including the Duttons, Sangiacomos, Martinellis and Bacigalupis, and from Steve’s own Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, MacRostie’s Sonoma Coast wines have established themselves as benchmarks, offering a rare intersection between labor-intensive small-lot winemaking, fair pricing and the complexity that can only be achieved by working with the finest vineyards.
Though founded in 1987, the seeds for MacRostie Winery and Vineyards go back to 1974—to the early days of Sonoma County winemaking—when Steve began his career at Hacienda Winery. At a time when most California winemakers were fixated on Bordeaux varieties and Napa Valley, Steve and a handful of other pioneers took a different path, embracing the fog-shrouded vineyards of Sonoma County and their untapped potential for producing some of the finest Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the world. Steve quickly gained renown as a winemaker capable of making exceptional Burgundian-variety wines. He also began to develop his own style, favoring crispness, complexity and vineyard character, as opposed to overt opulence.
In 1987, Steve established MacRostie. To make his earliest wines, he reached out to growers he knew and respected—leaders of Sonoma County winegrowing, like the Sangiacomo family. MacRostie’s wines were soon widely hailed for their unique balance of cool-climate structure and vibrant fruit. In 1992, years before the modern Pinot Noir boom, MacRostie added Pinot Noir to its portfolio, and quickly developed a devoted following for the pure and elegant style of these wines.
Several years later, inspired by a desire to cultivate his own great piece of land, Steve discovered an amazing mountainside ranch in the Petaluma Gap region on the borderlands of the Sonoma Coast. Planted to Steve’s specifications, this windswept site has become Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, and the cornerstone of the winery’s vineyard program. At the same time, in its drive to represent the entirety of the Sonoma Coast, MacRostie has continued to explore ever-farther west, to sites like Dutton Ranch and Goldrock Ridge, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. To capture the rich expressiveness of the entire appellation, MacRostie works with more than 30 Chardonnay vineyards and over 15 Pinot Noir sites—a remarkable level of diversity for a small winery.
In 2015, MacRostie unveiled its new state-of-the-art Pinot-focused winery and MacRostie Estate House on Westside Road in the Russian River Valley, which is also the home to Thale’s Vineyard, named after Steve’s wife. “I have always wanted a home for MacRostie that expresses who we are as a winery and what we believe in as clearly as our wines do,” says Steve. “Our new home in the Russian River Valley is a culmination of everything we have learned over our first quarter century, and a statement about who we plan to be over the next 25 years.”
Antica Vigna Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva is made from 65% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, 10% Corvinone, 5% Merlot.
Amarone DOCG has maintained unchanged its typicality, so that “the essence of the territory” of Valle di Mezzane and Cazzano di Tramigna powerfully emerges. Rich in color, firmly structured but with fresh notes.
WINEMAKING AND AGING:
Manual harvest early October with selection of the best bunches.
Drying: natural drying in fruit cellar for 3/4 months with a sharp drop in weight of around 30%.
Vinification: soft crushing of destemmed grapes in the months of January and February.
Fermentation: at a controlled temperature of 18/21°C. Fermentation time: about 30 days
Aging:· 80% in oak barrels for 30 months of which 2/3 in American and French barriques, half of which are used for the second and third time, 1/3 in large
THE TERRITORY:
Geographical location: Tenuta di Mezzane, Tenuta di Cazzano di Tramigna
Height: 350/400 meters asl
Exposure: south
Soil type: limestone
Vineyard training system: guyot and pergola
Vine planting year: from 1972 to 2009
Vine density: 4,000 to 5,400 vines per hectare Vineyard management: sustainable agriculture and great attention to natural
cycles
Pairs well with grilled and roasted meats, as well as cheese.
Timeless Notes:
Dark cherry in color, firm on the palate with a vibrant acidity underbelly. Thought lush on the palate the flavors are complex and elegant from entry to mid-palate with hints of currant and wild berries. The finish brings in a touch of tobacco and leather notes ,classic examples of this region, with more ripe fruit flavors that linger on long strain tannin finish. Complex with depth and elegance on the palate. This one is drinking now, but can handle more time in the cellar with ease. An excellent value in the Riserva category.
Boussey Volnay Premier Cru Les Taillepieds is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
The grapes for this Volnay Premier Cru Les Taillepieds are coming from the vineyard located in the middle of the coteau, halfway up the hill, with a very nice South sun exposure, allowing to reach an optimal ripeness every year.
The wine displays a nice ruby and garnet color. It boasts aromas of red and black fruit, fig, and violet.
It always has a lot of finesse and elegance, but also a great length to the finish, with juicy and round tannins.
Pair with frog legs with parsley and garlic, omelette, duck and cheese.
Slightly filtered before bottling.The wine is then aged in French Oak barrels for 12 months. (25% new barrels).
The Volnay Premier Cru Les Taillepieds is vinified in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks.
Surface area : 0.2 hectare (0.49 acres)