Pip Chardonnay 2013
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Ellie and Chris also produce Dunstan Wines from the Durell Vineyard. Ellie Phipps Price purchased the Durell Vineyard in 1998 from Ed Durell. Durell, a San Francisco food broker, acquired the land in 1977 with the intent of turning it into a cattle ranch, but began planting grapes instead. After hiring vineyard manager Steve Hill, the pair focused exclusively on growing premium wine grapes, which they began selling to Sonoma County wineries in 1982.
Today there are over 20 top-tier wineries producing Durell Vineyard designate wines including Chasseur, Chateau St. Jean, Kistler, and Auteur. In 2005, Ellie replanted the 8 1/2 acre Ranch House Block at Durell. This block is dedicated exclusively to Dunstan Wines, producing only a few hundred cases of premium Durell Vineyard wine each year.
Chris began working with Durell Vineyard in 2006 and partnered with Ellie in the launch of Dunstan Wines in 2008, with a focus on direct-to-consumer and national sales. After completing the Winemaker's certificate course at UC Davis, he has worked closely with winemaker Kenneth Juhasz to craft exceptional wines for Dunstan.
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 vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.