2021 Marine Layer 'Charles Heintz Vineyard' Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, California, USA

Tasting note

The 2021 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard is fabulous. It's also one of the most refined Chardonnays I have tasted here. Orchard fruit, wild flowers, mint, white pepper and chalk are all finely sketched. The 2021 offers the exotic beauty of Heintz, tempered by the bright acids of the vintage. It's a gorgeous wine in every way.

Our thoughts

Marine Layer refers to the blanket of fog that drifts in from the Pacific along the Sonoma Coast, yielding cooler temperatures that lead to longer hang-time in the vineyard and, in turn, more nuanced flavours and pronounced acidity in the bottle. Such conditions reach their ultimate expression in the renowned Charles Heitz vineyard, which lies in the coolest corner of the Russian River Valley, in the bijou Green Valley AVA. There, grapes are hand-harvested at night to ensure optimum freshness, before fermentation in old oak puncheons with native yeasts and maturation in barrel with monthly lees stirring. It’s an approach that yields rich, hedonistic flavours, but balanced by a defined line of acidity coursing through it.