Freshly baked apple pie, vanilla extract, lemon custard. Sweet cantaloupe, gooey caramel, shaved orange peel. A decadent melange of toasted pear, grilled peach, and apricot highlights a rich and luxurious fruit core generously seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg, and pronounced baking spices. Hints of melted butter, crème brûlée, and toffee emerge to expose a substantial helping of new oak further bolstered in extravagance by butterscotch candy and marshmallow spread. Honeysuckle and jasmine lavishly blow in to compliment lush floral overtones while sandy earth, sea salt, and subtle minerality reveal a pinch of coastal terroir. Soft, round, and indulgent on the palate while still retaining nice tension and verve; exhibiting a succulent and styled expression of a well known and well loved grape. Full bodied and plush yet cut and lifted by nicely elevated acidity. This 2016 Sunchase Vineyard Chardonnay by Pellet Estate is an opulent, sumptuous, and seductive white from Sonoma's Petaluma Gap.

Located in the rolling hillsides surrounding the town of Petaluma directly between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay, the Petaluma Gap is a unique winegrowing appellation on the Sonoma Coast that is putting out exceptional cool climate wine. This bottling, crafted by Pellet Estate using Chardonnay sourced from the Sunchase Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap, exhibits the richness and decadence that can be achieved in this region without abandoning freshness and balance. While this wine is unabashedly ripe with no shortage of baked fruit and caramelized oak notes it remains quite focused on the palate thanks to an excellent backbone of acidity. It manages to achieve the plush luxuriousness of California's grandest Chardonnays and yet does it without ever becoming overly dense or flabby. Lovers of round and buttery whites should certainly give this a try.