Siduri Willamette Valley Chardonnay 2020
-
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Aromatics of lemon blossom, pear, and river stone. A fresh and lushly textured entry is accented by Meyer lemon, apple and spice notes that emerge through the midpalate, with vibrant acid highlighting a graceful finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Chardonnay Willamette Valley was matured for 10 months in 25% new French oak. It has youthful aromas of yellow peach and apples, cashews, toast and creamy undertones. The medium-bodied palate features generous, layered flavors delivered in an alluringly creamy texture. It has a foil of bright acidity and a long, energetic finish.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Chardonnay Willamette Valley is fresh with aromas of crushed oyster shell, lime zest, and pear. The palate is medium-bodied, with ripe green apple on the mid-palate, a mineral texture, and refreshing citrus peel on the finish. It is delicious now, with an Old World Chablis-inspired application.
-
Wine Spectator
Generous and plump with fruit, offering rich tropical fruit and apricot flavors that sail on a long, supple finish.
Two Pinot Noir lovers, Adam and Dianna Lee, founded Siduri Wines in 1994. They produced only four and a half barrels of Pinot Noir that first vintage. Now they handcraft over 10,000 cases of Pinot Noir from vineyards ranging from Oregon's Willamette Valley down to the Santa Rita Hills and Santa Lucia Highlands AVAs. Each Pinot Noir is created using gravity flow and minimal intervention, with the goal of reflecting the unique terroir of each particular vineyard. Siduri Wines and its sibling, Novy Family Wines have received the Wine Spectator's New York Wine Experience "Critics Choice" recognition a combined seven times since 2004.
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.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.