2021 Chardonnay, Roberts Road Sonoma Coast
This initial bottling from one of our favorite vineyards reminds us very much of the wines of Pugliny-Montrachet, offering up all the intense aromatics, rich mouthfeel, bracing minerality and structural elegance you could want. Our 2021 Roberts Road Chardonnay offers up juicy honeysuckle, orange rind and lemon curd notes that gain complexity on the palate with the emergence of wet stone, white peach and a sweet roasted grain richness that hints of just baked apple tart. Bright acidity adds buoyancy to the long complex finish.
Vineyard: Farmed by the legendary Sangiacomo family, Roberts Road Vineyard is planted to the western slopes of Sonoma Mountain, on an old creek bed. The site’s alluvial clay soils and unique location in a fog-catching depression at the base of the mountain create the perfect conditions for growing world class Chardonnay. The vineyard’s extended hangtime along with the Dijon 95 and Robert Young clones produce extraordinarily structured and beautifully aromatic wines. This was especially true in 2021 when an almost perfect growing season that saw no unfavorable weather extremes and extended time on the vine boosted flavor concentration, palate weight and acidic tension.
Winemaking: In an effort to express the individual nature of each site, we employ almost identical winemaking protocols across all of our Chardonnays. Our 2021 Roberts Road Vineyard Chardonnay was picked under lights in the very early morning and whole fruit pressed. After settling for three days, the juice was racked to 50% new French oak barrels and inoculated with a low rate of Burgundian yeast. The wine was cold barrel fermented at 58-68°F for over 100 days before aging for an additional 14 months, undergoing a true secondary malolactic fermentation in the spring. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
WS 90pts, JS 97pts, JD 94pts, SJ 95pts, WE 95pts
Tech Info:
Suggested Price: $75/bottle Aging: 7mos, 50% new French oak
Case Production: 94 cases Bottled Date: March 9, 2023
Harvest Date: Sept. 30, 2021 Alc: 14.5%
Brix at Harvest: 23.8 TA: 6.7
Clone: Dijon 95, pH: 3.24
Robert Young