Sixto Roza Hills Chardonnay 2016
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine
Spectator -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
#90 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2019
If there is a baseline for Washington Chardonnay, this is it! Rich, full, all- encompassing white chocolate, chestnut, fresh churned sweet cream andspring flowers. A dollop of marmalade completes the deliciousness. So good. So Washington
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The star of the show is the 2016 Chardonnay Roza Hills and it comes from a site in the Rattlesnake Hills region and was brought up roughly one-quarter new French oak. It has riviting minerality as well as classy notes of lemon, buttered citrus, toasted spice, and brioche. Deep, full-bodied, seamless, and elegant on the palate, it’s the finest Chardonnay I’ve tasted from Washington.
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Wine Spectator
Spirited and plush, with expressive pineapple and pear flavors, accented by buttery brioche and spice notes that build richness on the opulent finish.
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James Suckling
A plot on chalk soils planted in 1972, this has a lemon-cooler nose with wet-stone nuances, as well as a gently reductive edge. The fruit is somewhere in between pear and peach with lightly spiced custard notes on the nose and palate. Has salient crispness and depth. Good tension, too. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine comes from vines planted in 1977 at 1,350 above sea level—high by the state's standards. Half fermented in concrete with the rest in oak barrel before being aged in puncheons, aromas of toast, pineapple, lanolin, cream and spice lead to a full-bodied palate, with textured tropical-fruit flavors. It's a tasty, full-bodied, rich, very stylistic offering of the variety that need some time in the cellar. Best after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Food-friendly upon release, the 2016 Chardonnay Roza Hills Vineyard opens with a lively tension of fresh lemon tart. The full-bodied palate offers a crisp, clean expression of Chardonnay with firm acidity, richness and an oaked expression that is more evident with this bottling than the Moxee or Frenchman Hills bottlings of the same range. The wine ends with a thoughtfully long finish, with a citrus kiss and soft spiciness on the aftertaste. Only 221 cases made.
Other Vintages
2018-
James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator -
Wine
Enthusiast
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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 large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.