Tasting Panel
Fresh, crisp, and juicy with a rich texture and an elegant style that combines tangy citrus and lush, creamy, vanilla influenced elements.
93 Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Grower Collection Calesa Vineyard is reticent on the nose at first, opening to apple blossom and wet stone with green and white fruits, fresh herbs, underlying spices and an intriguing note of tangerine peel. Medium-bodied, with a fantastic creamy/silky texture, it fills the mouth with spicy fruits and a line of rocky minerality, ending with nutty/honeyed nuances. Give this some time in the bottle. Rating: 93+
92 Vinous
The 2017 Chardonnay Calesa Vineyard is a very pretty, understated wine. Orchard fruit, pineapple, white flowers and mint are all nicely lifted in this right, super-expressive Petaluma Gap Chardonnay. Bright saline notes punctuate the super-expressive finish.
92 Jeb Dunnuck
Readers will know this estate more for their Napa Valley releases, but they have some beautiful Sonoma County releases as well. The 2017 Chardonnay Chappellet Grower Collection Calesa Vineyard comes from a site in the Petaluma Gap and was aged nine months in barrel. It has a pretty, melon, tropical, and salty Seabreeze like perfume as well as medium body, good freshness and acidity, and a great finish. It’s certainly an outstanding Chardonnay that should keep for 4-5 years or more.
91 Wine Spectator
Creamy, featuring layers of butter pastry, baked apple and pear tart flavors that are lusciously spiced. Shows mouthfilling viscosity on the spicy finish, with some savory hints. Drink now through 2023.
90 James Suckling
There’s a simple array of ripe pear and melon aromas here with poached-pear flavor on the palate, delivering simple, fleshy and round appeal. Neat, phenolic edge to the finish. Drink now.
Tasting Notes
The 2017 growing season yielded a radiant expression of Chardonnay at Calesa Vineyard, with inviting aromas of Meyer lemon, orange zest and hints of tropical flowers. On the palate, luxurious layers of brioche, melted butter and baking spices add depth and complexity to flavors of lemon drop, lychee and apricot, with fine-tuned acidity and subtle hints of smoke and sweet oak carrying through to a long, satisfying finish.
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