2017 Sierra Madre Vineyard Chardonnay - Dorothy Jean Wines

Candied lemon, crème fraîche, half-baked apple. Dried pineapple, roasted cashew, Georgia peach slice. Warm cinnamon and sweet vanilla, fresh lavender and fragrant honeysuckle. Gorgeously ripe sunshine-filled fruit erupts generously in a bouquet of poached pear, cantaloupe, and apricot complemented delicately by bright flowers. A wave of baking spices barrels into frame providing a dusting of nutmeg, clove, and cumin that sing seductively of new wood. Toasted marshmallow, cottage cheese, and fluffy sawdust complement breadth and complexity as sea breeze and sand confess terroir. While quite overt and forward on the nose this wine is tense, tart, and tightly wound on the palate containing surprisingly intense acidity that flushes out its medium plus bodied frame. High energy and quite serious; showing potential for many years of development. This 2017 Sierra Madre Vineyard Chardonnay by Dorothy Jean Wines is a powerful, structured, and focused white from Santa Barbara County.

While still primarily known as a source for premium quality Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County has taken advantage of its remarkably cool climate to begin its meteoric rise into a world class Chardonnay powerhouse. This bottling, crafted by Dorothy Jean Wines using Chardonnay sourced from the Sierra Madre Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, shows exactly why Santa Barbara is so well suited to this grape. This wine possesses plenty of the fleshy ripeness one might expect from California yet it contains remarkable tension and verve, refusing to let go of Chardonnay's natural energy in favor of soft roundness. It is well balanced with great typicity and expresses a distinct sense of place, which is a recipe followed by the world's greatest Chardonnay.