Stonestreet Estate Chardonnay 2016
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Winemaker Notes
As a blend of Stonestreet's best Chardonnay vineyard sites, the Estate bottling is one of the most compelling illustrations of the mountain. Winemaker Lisa Valtenbergs blends this wine with shrewd precision, balancing aromatic intrigue, texture and the Mayacamas' signature structural elements into a pure reflection of the vintage. The 2016 Estate Chardonnay exhibits honeysuckle and orange creamsicle with subtle salinity. The generous palate finishes long with notes of toffee.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Chardonnay Estate is another wine sourced from higher elevation sites and was barrel fermented and aged. It offers a classic style in its baked apples, spice, honeycomb, and marzipan profile. Deep, medium-bodied, beautifully balanced, and textured, it’s a class act.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fermented in barrel and aged 11 months in 36% new French oak, the 2016 Chardonnay Estate has a ripe apple, peach blossom, poached pears and nutmeg-scented nose with a waft of beeswax. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is satisfyingly savory with plenty of citrus and mineral accents and a long spicy finish.
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Wine Spectator
Vibrant minerality meets crisp white fruit flavors, with dried savory notes midpalate. The resonant finish offers citrus zest and chamomile accents.
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Wine & Spirits
Lisa Valtenbergs blends this wine from a range of blocks in the Jackson family’s Alexander Mountain estate, where the vineyards rise to 2,400 feet into the Mayacamas Mountains. Its notes of tart apple, yellow plum and jasmine are quiet and savory behind the nutmeg richness of the wine’s oak influence. Smoky notes suggest a match with teasmoked chicken.
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In the autumn of 1989, Jess Jackson acquired the Zellerbach winery and renamed it in honor of his late father, Jess Stonestreet Jackson. Stonestreet quickly garnered international acclaim for their powerful reds and luscious whites.
Today, Stonestreet wines are undergoing a transformation, using fruit from Alexander Mountain Estate and new winemaking techniques. Alexander Mountain Estate, with lean, well-draining soils and cooler temperature, produces fruit with smaller berries and more intense color and flavor. Stonestreet is dedicated to fulfilling the promise of Alexander Valley's exceptional and distinctive vineyards. Traditional, Old World methods of hand harvesting, small barrel lot production, native yeast fermentation and bottling each wine unfiltered brings out the best in specific grape varieties and provides the quality framework for each Stonestreet wine.
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.
Nearly a northern extension of Napa Valley, Alexander Valley starts just north of the small, Knights Valley, and is just a few minutes drive from the Napa town of Calistoga. It is Sonoma County’s hottest AVA. But the Russian River, which runs through the valley, creates cooler pockets and its soft, alluvial soil is ideal for grape growing, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, some believe that Alexander Valley Cabernets truly rival the best from Napa Valley and many of the heavy-hitter producers have largely invested here.
In addition to Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up over 50% of plantings, Merlot and old vine Zinfandel thrive here. Ample, fleshy Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc dominate white wine production. Some old-vine plantings of Grenache have also been discovered and more recent experiments with Sangiovese and Barbera show great promise.