Wine & Spirits - October 2019 - 50

YEAR'S BEST US CHARDONNAYS
loom selections of chardonnay, this includes
fruit from the original 1969 planting of the
Rued selection by Warren Dutton. Those
vines produced a floral 2016, with scents of
wildflower honey and rose. Its fresh, pear-like
fruit feels cool and zesty against the warm
breadth of alcohol and savory oak tannins.
Chill it for roast salmon. (W&S 12/18) -J.G.
517586

91 | MacRostie

$36

2017 Russian River Valley Chardonnay ^
Heidi Bridenhagen blends this from six vineyards, building complexity out of a contrast
of flavors, from green fig to sweeter citrus
and deep umami scents of fruity mushrooms.
It's savory and smoky in its grounding, and
cleansing in the end. Pour it with roast snapper and wild mushrooms. (547 cases) -J.G.
517769

91 | Patz & Hall

$65

2017 Russian River Valley Kent Ritchie
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ Perfumed with
white-peach scents and notes of fresh cream,
this wine's fruit lends a soft, cushioned feel to
the otherwise tense, firm structure. It finishes
with a clean and lilting crispness, a contrast
to the darker brooding tones underneath.
Built to develop with a few years of age,
it's also enjoyable now. Decant it for skate
Grenobloise. (378 cases) -J.G.

and apricot flavors of the fruit. Balanced,
long and flavorful, it's an interesting style
of California chardonnay that would meld
with rustic game dishes, like roast partridge
or rabbit. (W&S 4/19; 2,800 cases) -J.G.
516903

90 | Marimar Estate

$32

2017 Russian River Valley Acero Don
Miguel Vineyard Chardonnay ^ This chardonnay, made without oak, gains its richness
from concentrated white fruit and the creaminess of malolactic conversion. Its mild notes
of lemon curd and tahini make it a smoky,
salty white for roast veal. (W&S 8/19; 1,210
cases)-J.G.
517691

90 | Medlock Ames

$48

2017 Russian River Valley Lower Slope
Chardonnay ^ Ames Morison tends chardonnay on the Russian River side of his
Bell Mountain Estate, where he's otherwise focused on Alexander Valley cabernet.
He ages half of this wine in stainless-steel
tanks, the other half in French oak barrels,
creating a big, smoky chardonnay that has
the structure to stand up to red meat. (550
cases) -J.G.

516964

90 | Williams Selyem

$58

90 | Williams Selyem

91 | Roth

$20

2017 Russian River Valley Chardonnay
(Best Buy) ^ This chardonnay's plump yellow fruit comes across in shades of lemon,
from floral blossoms to a squeeze of fresh
lemon juice. There's also a darker tone from
its interaction with oak, lending a bacon-fat
scent to deepen its grape-skin spice. Built for
bockwurst. (3,080 cases) -J.G.
515462

90 | Domaine Rutz

2017 Russian River Valley Olivet Lane
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ This grows at the
Pelligrini family's vineyard in the center
of the Russian River Valley, on vines they
planted soon after purchasing the property in 1973. It's old-Wente-clone chardonnay, presented here in a deeply colored wine
with flavors of butterscotch, apricot and yellow plum. Scents of apple blossoms develop
as the toastiness of the oak recedes with air.
Pour it with a creamy veal stew. -J.G.
516052

$35

$65

518019

2017 Russian River Valley Maison Grand
Cru Chardonnay (Best Buy) ^ Keith Rutz
makes this wine with Mark Trujillo; it's a
cloudy chardonnay with graham-cracker
notes of oak and some leesy influence of delicate tannins that come up to meet the melon
50

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2019

2016 Russian River Valley Drake Estate
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ John and Kathe
Dyson purchased Roscoe Drake's apple
orchard in 1998, the year they also bought
Burt Williams and Ed Selyem's winery.
The Drake property, where the Russian

River passes through Guerneville, has since
become a cool site for pinot noir, and for this
cool-fruited chardonnay. The wine's richness
takes the creamy yellow-apple flavors in the
direction of pineapple and mango, all of it
integrated into a crowd-pleasing style with
smooth, supple textures and nutty notes of
oak aging. (W&S 6/19) -J.G.

SONOMA COAST
517839

94 | Patz & Hall

$65

93 | Hartford Court

$70

93 | Patz & Hall

$40

92 | Cobb

$70

2017 Sonoma Coast Goldrock Ridge
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ This wine sustains
its fruit clarity in layers of apple, peach and
fresh chamomile flowers, all of it supported
by oak that's barely perceptible in the context of all that chardonnay intensity. It grows
on a west-facing ridge, six miles from the
coast-John Hall's westernmost chardonnay
source. While there's tense acidity, it reads as
a woodsy note, leaving an impression that's
bright, gentle and clean. (272 cases) -J.G.
517632
2016 Sonoma Coast Seascape Vineyard
Chardonnay ^ The Jackson family planted
this ridge west of Occidental, a site neighboring the Cobb family's Coastlands Vineyard
and fully exposed to the Pacific. The cool site
translates into a musky chardonnay, as if the
fog-infused grapes never ripened much past
orange-blossom scents. Yet the wine feels
fully mature, its rich textures held tight by
firm acidity. Distinctly a wine of the coast,
it's ready for Dungeness crab. -J.G.
514532
2016 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay ^ A blend
from vineyards on the coastal side of Sonoma
County, many providing the more ambitious
single-vineyard wines for Patz & Hall, this
is the freshest of the 2016 chardonnays we
tasted from the winery. The wine's clarity
is impressive, tightening around peach-pit
flavors and fleshier notes of nectarine and
kumquat. Its oak influence remains in the
background, reading as cinnamon notes and
crossing over into mineral edges that bring to
mind sandstone. It's plump, lively and rich,
delivering exactly what you'd want from a
coastal chardonnay. (W&S 12/18) -J.G.
517539
2017 Sonoma Coast H. Klopp Vineyard
Chardonnay ^ The Klopp Vineyard, southwest of Sebastopol, includes a massal selection from Mount Eden that Ross Cobb uses
to create this wine. It's floral with scents of
jasmine and bergamot, then saline enough
to give the orange-and-butterscotch richness

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Wine & Spirits - October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2019