2016 Roald Wine Company Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 750 ml

Our winemaker friend Michelle has a rule when she invites people to her home: No one is allowed to taste the wine she offers; everyone, however, is required to drink it.

As always, Michelle had covered her kitchen table with California’s best when we stopped by, including a dozen of her favorite Chardonnays. Bottles of Ramey, Far Niente, Grgich Hills, and more were scattered around the table. Just as we were reaching for the Cakebread Chard, Michelle appeared out of nowhere and told us to wait a second: She had a special bottle she wanted us to check out.

After a taste, we understood her excitement: With its honeyed apple tarte Tatin and pineapple aromas, this 2016 was elegant and rich, with more than enough complexity to send us reaching for a second sip. With time, it revealed Bartlett pear and red apple flavors mingled with hints of butterscotch on the creamy mid-palate. 

After learning everything he could from his two powerhouse mentors, Nelson headed to the far reaches of the Sonoma Coast, where he sourced the grapes for this rich 2016 release. Grown in Black Knight Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, within view of the Petaluma Gap, these grapes are imbued with a unique character from the vineyard’s volcanic origins and soils made up of petrified wood. The site’s location atop Taylor Mountain means that warm sunny days allow the grapes to reach optimal ripeness, while cool, breezy nights maintain impeccable acidity and freshness.

Because of those conditions, the Chardonnay was allowed to remain on the vine for a long, leisurely growing season, and develop the full range of flavors and aromas that the picture-perfect 2016 vintage afforded them (Vinous founder Antonio Galloni himself declared that “2016 is one of the most consistently brilliant and alluring young vintages I have ever tasted in Sonoma.”).

Nelson whole-cluster pressed the bunches, and then, taking a lesson he learned from his time with David Ramey, allowed them to spontaneously ferment in used French oak barrels. He then permitted the wine to undergo full malolactic fermentation, and aged it for 18 months on the lees in those same barrels, lending this Chardonnay a beguiling sense of generosity.  

Like the best of the Sonoma Coast, the 2016 Roald Chardonnay is a wine of ripe fruit, vivid acidity, and the kind of length that usually implies a much more expensive bottle.

The next morning, we arranged to head out to Black Knight Vineyard to see for ourselves where this miraculous wine came from. We were met there by Greg, who explained that David Ramey’s influence can be felt clearly in this wine, especially from “a lot of the winemaking techniques that I learned from him, and that I appreciate and continue using,” like highlighting the vineyard’s amazing terroir by allowing the native yeast to start the fermentation.