2023 Hook & Ladder Chardonnay Aquarius Ranch Russian River Valley 750 ml

Few families can claim they helped build the Russian River Valley. The DeLoaches can. Cecil DeLoach was among the first to plant Pinot Noir on Olivet Road, among the first to put “Russian River Valley” on a label, and he pushed until the appellation became official in 1983.

Cecil spent 17 years as a San Francisco firefighter before he and his wife, Christine, bought a Russian River farm in 1970 with no background in grapes and a shared dream of land the family could work together. They learned fast. DeLoach Vineyards, which they opened in 1975, became a reference point for the entire region.

When they sold that winery to Boisset in 2003, they didn’t retire. They launched Hook & Ladder the same year, named for Cecil’s firefighting days, and eventually handed the cellar to their grandson Jason DeLoach, who makes the wines today. The tasting room walls are covered in fire-station t-shirts sent by firefighters from around the world.

This Chardonnay comes from Aquarius Ranch, a single vineyard on Westside Road that sits practically neighboring Rochioli and Williams Selyem, two of the most coveted addresses in American wine. The site was a prune orchard until the early 1970s, when the family who owns it cleared the fruit trees and planted vines in the river’s rich alluvial soil. More than 50 years later it’s still tended by the same hands.

Sitting on the Russian River’s flood plain, its deep soils and the long, fog-tempered ripening season give Chardonnay both richness and cut, the balance Westside Road is famous for. It’s a site the DeLoach family’s practiced eye knew was worth sourcing.

The 2023 season only sharpened it. Record winter rains, a cool summer without heat spikes, and a late harvest gave growers one of the longest, gentlest runs in a decade, and Sonoma Chardonnay came out of it with unusual freshness and depth.

Expect a golden core in the glass, with aromas of acacia blossom, orchard apple, and lemon curd lifted by toasted hazelnut and a note of marzipan. It’s lush and round on the palate, layered with citrus and nutty tones, and a vibrant seam of acidity carries it to a long, clean finish.