Sonoma’s refreshing diversity: 450+ wines tasted
The Williams Selyem vineyard, where tannin ripeness is the key to their success.
To say this part of the Californian wine landscape is a complex one is an understatement. The possibilities for wine production run so many styles, from cool-climate sparkling on the coast to stylishly rich Bordeaux-style reds in warmer pockets and everything in between.
Our report of more than 450 wines has a three-way tie for the highest rating, with a pinot noir, a chardonnay and a malbec all pegged at 97 points. “I don’t know a more diverse region,” says Jesse Katz, the winemaker responsible for that 97-point malbec.
Sonoma’s best wines show impressive precision, detail and balance. Pronounced climatic influences here make it something of a winemaker’s playground and it continues to attract imaginative and talented players looking for high quality and diverse styles.
Pinot noir grabs the spotlight
Pinot noir is the big-ticket item – we rated just over 200 of them here. There are many good examples in this report, led by the Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma County Russian River Valley Treehouse 2017 (our lone 97-point pinot) with a convincingly powerful brand of pinot that has a silky, glossy texture and a stunning purity of fruit, both rich and fresh. Also from the Russian River Valley, the plush and layered Donum Single Vineyard Reserve 2017 (96 points) has similar qualities that cut right to the core of why Sonoma pinot is so revered.
Then there are styles of pinot that are more adventurous, and Hirsch is a bastion of this tightly defined, pared back and fragrant brand of pinot. Their Block 8 2017 from Sonoma Coast has a frisky wild style, bursting with fresh and super crunchy berry fruits delivered in a layered, long and juicy palate. This is a memorable and thrilling pinot noir.
Hirsch’s Reserve Pinot Noir 2017 (95 points) wraps super fine tannins around such pure fruit, surely the essence of any reserve bottling, and binds it with succulent and juicy acidity. Ditto RAEN’s enriching and layered 2017 Home Field Vineyard Pinot Noir from Fort Ross-Seaview (96 points), with compelling rhythm and depth.
Kosta Browne has also shown its ability to play on the Sonoma Coast and deliver a more tensile version of their polished and plush style with their 2017 Free James pinot bottling (96 points). There is density as well as striking elegance in this wine. “We are going further west as the climate seems to be heating up, looking to find cooler parcels,” says KB winemaker Julien Howsepian. Their Cerise Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017 is also excellent, a suavely delivered pinot pleasure machine with irresistibly glossy, pristine fruit flavors.
Williams Selyem has an evolved repertoire of pinot noir and their two best from the 2017 vintage are the single-plot Olivet Lane Vineyard and Allen Vineyard bottlings, both rated 95 points in this report. The former is a rendering of old Martini clone pinot planted in the 1970s and it marries attractive savory notes with spicy dark fruits and delivers beautifully plush yet powerful tannins. “I cater a lot of our viticulture to getting tannin ripeness right, it’s so important to us,” says winemaker Jeff Mangahas.
From a plot planted in 1971, the 2017 Williams Selyem Allen Vineyard pinot noir follows in the same zone of silky, resolved tannin. The spice-dusted violets, raspberries, sliced strawberries and pink grapefruit make a lively impression ahead of a super silky, plush palate with gently plump red-berry, cherry and strawberry fruits.
Other names to watch in the competitive Sonoma pinot space are Red Car, Wayfarer, Martin Ray, Three Sticks, Ernest, Etude and Hanzell. With all the potential for sub-regional and site-driven distinction seen in Sonoma pinot noir, if I was to generalize about the 2017 vintage wines it would be to say that they are approachable and all elevated to a good level of quality. But when compared to the same wines from the 2016 vintage, with their contained and powerful cores, the 2017s are a little more diffuse and will suit earlier drinking.
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- The Block 8 pinot was our favorite from Hirsch, scoring 96 points with its spicy, fruity style.
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- The label is just one of the captivating features of Devil Proof Vineyards’ super-rich 2016 Farrow Ranch malbec.
Chardonnay gets dialed up
Chardonnay is a fast-moving target and, like pinot noir, there’s a real spread of styles on offer. There are still plenty of wines sitting in the waffle-cone zone making big, rich classic Californian chardonnay with every element dialed up loud. It seems consumer awareness of diacetyl (that gives butterscotch character in chardonnay) is only just starting out in the US. At the other end of the spectrum, the cooler styles with persistent acidity, piercing defined structure, driving length and intensity really stand out and Sonoma offers winemakers an excellent opportunity for capturing freshness and tension in chardonnay.
Kosta Browne also delivered the highest rated chardonnay in this report, to sit alongside their top-scoring pinot. The 2017 Bootlegger’s Hill Russian River Valley Chardonnay (97 points) has concentration and intensity of fruit with a smartly contained, linear palate structure that wrenches dry at the finish. KB’s El Diablo Chardonnay 2017 (96 points) also delivers a flinty and pithy citrus-tinged chardonnay.
“We are picking much, much earlier and looking to craft texture, weight and substance,” says KB’s winemaker Howsepian. “A site like Bootlegger’s is a winemaker’s dream because you can deliver ripeness at low pH with great natural acidity. There’s power and tension coming right out of the vineyard.”
More evolution than revolution, Sonoma chardonnay picking times are coming forward in the harvest and winemakers are starting to talk more and more about locking tension into the wines.
From the Sonoma Coast, the 2016 Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay Les Pierres (96 points) has delivered layers of white peach and cooler pear fruits with a stony edge. This is classy chardonnay and manages to dial flavors right up as well as craft impeccable structure and balance. Watch this region’s chardonnay as winemakers settle into this new state of energized balance and purity; there are exciting times ahead.
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- Sonoma’s complexity makes for a varied and hugely exciting wine landscape.
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- Martin Ray is one of the Sonoma producers creating compelling chardonnay.
Best of Sonoma’s ‘other’ wines
To fuller-bodied reds and Jesse Katz has delivered a pair of stunning wines from the 2016 vintage, one of which is the highest pointed wine of this report. That 97-point malbec mentioned above is the Devil Proof Malbec Farrow Ranch 2016 from the Alexander Valley and shows this region’s ability to make super rich red wine styles that are cut with freshness and deliver lively, energetic and approachable appeal.
The other is his Aperture Cabernet Sauvignon Site Specific Del Rio 2016 (96 points) which hails from a steep, chalky hillside site. The alluring aromas of warm wet stones, violets, cassis and black olive characters all speak to beautifully grown, perfectly ripened cabernet sauvignon. The duality of freshness and richness seen in this wine is the hallmark of great cabernet the world over and Sonoma’s potential for achieving this is a big part of what drew Katz’s attention across from the warmer Napa Valley.
With experience in Napa, as well as Bordeaux and Argentina, Katz says his decision to move to Sonoma to focus on Bordeaux varietals was calculated. “With warmer and warmer vintages and more extreme weather become the norm, I wanted to find the best soils and sites on the slightly cooler Sonoma side,” he explains. “Cooler nights are particularly important, there’s a much larger diurnal swing in Sonoma than in Napa. We have fog year round and a longer growing season so we can pick at similar physiological ripeness to Napa with 1-1.5 degrees less alcohol,” he says.
The quality of Katz’s wines is uniformly high and they feature strongly in this report. With a new winery commissioned just in time for harvest 2019 expect even greater heights to be reached. Outside of reds, his 2018 Aperture Bennett Valley Sauvignon Blanc is a fitting homage to the dry whites of Bordeaux with such careful finessing of ripe, yet lively and pure fruit.
Another stand-out red in this report is the Di Costanzo Montecillo Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 from the Moon Mountain District (95 points). There’s genuine wow-factor in the wine’s concentration and intensity of dark cherry and blue fruit flavors with regal definition of tannin. Syrah also performed well with the 2017 Keller Estate Rotie (95 points) from the Petaluma Gap area leading the charge. The homage to the Northern Rhone is clearly stated on the label and this blend of 93 percent syrah and 7 percent viognier lights up aromatically and texturally in impressive style. Jeff Cohn’s spicy and texturally complex 2016 Rockpile Vineyard Syrah (94 points) is also well worth your time.
Sonoma is a large and incredibly diverse region. It is a complex puzzle that is still being figured out in so many respects. Sites that were recognized a decade or more ago for one style are now being considered for another and there’s a shift in farming practice as many producers improve quality and production methods.
Climatically gifted, the freshness that Sonoma can deliver across a broad range of wines is a huge asset. The ability to deliver wines of depth and balance is a valuable currency anywhere in the wine world and the notion of natural acidity aligns with both the global palate and growing respect for making wines first and foremost in the field. For all Sonoma’s complexities, Williams Selyem’s Jeff Mangahas surmises its appeal so very simply. “I like freshness,” he says. And he is certainly not alone.
– Nick Stock, senior editor