We’ll be the first to admit that we probably don’t spend proportionately enough time talking about California Chardonnay. We do sell a bit of it. But a lot of it is formulaic and geared to fitting certain flavor profiles, while other (which you won’t read about here) are trying, but not quite achieving, some sort of stylistic ideal. Frankly, for such reasons, we find very few California Chardonnays to get excited about. So, if nothing else, this a rare situation where we ran across something that we thought had some ‘sizzle’ and the kind of character that deserves attention.
As we have no shame in saying, our personal preferences run a bit ‘Euro’. Big, fat, sappy styles of Chardonnay are not ‘our jam’ and rather limited in food applications besides. There are, however, ‘local’ alternatives that do strike a chord. One of the more consistent sources is a small Central Coast producer called Liquid Farm. These folks ‘get it’ and we have dabbled over the years with a number of different releases from them.
Perhaps there is a bit of a ‘kindred spirit’ vibe here as we knew owner Jeff Nelson from back in the days where he worked with both Champagne and Burgundy entities on the wholesale market. In the beginning of the project (2009 to be specific), the winery slated a first release that consisted of four barrels of wine with the idea to make a singular bottling. As they tell the story, the juice itself had other ideas with the various component barrels evolving into distinctively different wines that had their own story to tell. Since then the game has been to listen to the grapes and take it from there.
The main focus of the winery had been the Santa Rita Hills but they refer to the Liquid Farm Chardonnay La Hermana Santa Maria Valley 2017 as the first “sister”(La Hermana is Spanish for ‘sister’) to their Santa Rita Hills Chardonnays. The grapes for ‘Sister’ come from the neighboring Santa Maria Valley, roughly equal parts Bien Nacido Vineyard and Solomon Hills Vineyard. The juice goes through 100% neutral barrel fermentation and subsequently sees an additional 10 months in barrel.
There are a lot of reasons we like this wine. Most important, it beautifully embraces the European model while still providing fruit and flavor interest. There is both flesh and verve. There’s volume to the floral, apple, pear, mineral fruit, and a fine underpinning of acidity underneath so that everything hums along nicely across the palate. That combination seems to be difficult to achieve in California and makes this wine stand out because it can play to many stylistic camps. Also, among the Liquid Farm lineup, this is the bargain. It give you a great show of the style and quality of the house, but at half the price of their SRH bottlings.
Antonio Galloni found a lot to like here as well, “The 2017 Chardonnay La Hermana is the one Santa Maria Chardonnay in this lineup. Orchard fruit, white flowers, mint, slate and chalk add layers of complexity to a bright, enticing Chardonnay that oozes class. Impeccable in its balance, La Hermana is bright, layered and incredibly appealing…93 points.”