Patz & Hall Dutton Ranch Chardonnay 2016
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
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Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch offers more honeyed citrus, orchard fruits, pineapple, and floral notes, with a gorgeous minerality developing with time in the glass. Medium-bodied, vibrant and fresh, with good acidity and building richness, it's classic all the way and a thrilling Chardonnay from this estate.
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Wine & Spirits
Selected from several old-vine blocks at Dutton Ranch, predominantly heirloom 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.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch gives up gregarious notes of nectarines, guava and passion fruit with suggestions of almond croissant and honeysuckle. The palate is medium to full-bodied with a lovely creaminess to the texture and oodles of freshness, finishing long and fruity.
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Wine Spectator
Densely packed, with flavors of Fuji apple, pear tart and dried peach swathed in spicy overtones. Sage honey hints show on the creamy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a rich, layered wine offering sizable notions of oak within a powerful backdrop of Meyer lemon, melon and apple. It has dense concentration and richness that finds balance in underlying acidity and a mineral tease of crushed rock.
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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 standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.