Scott Family Estate Arroyo Seco Chardonnay 2017
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This Chardonnay is produced from Dijon Clones grown in the Arroyo Seco appellation of Monterey County. Arroyo Seco Chardonnay is reputed to be on of the most flavorful Chardonnays from one of California's coolest growing regions. To showcase these outstanding grapes, they have crafted this wine using a combination of malolactic fermentation and sur lies aging. This produces a Chardonnay with aromatic elegance, opulent flavors and an exceedingly long, balanced finish.
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Fresh and juicy with lively acidity and racy fruit; silky, tangy and long. A crisp and balanced wine from Rutherford wine Company.
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Red pear, nectarine and a hint of pineapple make for a broad, aromatic entry to this bottling. There are clean lines of sharp, steely structure to the palate, which gives way to fleshy flavors of apple, pear and white peach.
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2019-
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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.
Named after the dramatic, seasonal river of rain and snowmelt that cuts through the upper elevations of the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Arroyo Seco AVA extends east from the resultant mountain gorge, and into the rural and warm Salinas Valley. During the growing season, cool and damp Pacific Ocean air penetrates the gorge and flows into the valley, creating a cool evening respite for vineyards after a hot summer day. This natural water-release has also created a subterranean aquifer, which helps set the foundation of the AVA's boundaries and supplies the vineyards with water.
Arroyo Seco was actually home to the first commercial vineyard in California, called Mission Ranch, which was owned and propogated by the Mirassou family in the 1960s.
Chardonnay is most widely grown here. But as one of Monterey’s warmer regions, Arroyo Seco enjoys the highest praise for its reds, namely Bordeaux blends.
Arroyo Seco is one of the oldest AVAs in California, its status granted in the early 1980s, and also remains one of its smallest.