Left Coast Cellars Truffle Hill Chardonnay 2016
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This Chardonnay is delicious with French country dishes. The flavors in the wine make you wish for Pate and a hunk of crusty bread, some rich creamy cheese and perhaps a slice of quiche. Try with potted salmon rillettes, crab cakes and a salad of pears, walnuts and Oregon Rogue Creamery blue cheese.
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2020-
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Wine &
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James
Suckling
Family owned and operated, Left Coast Cellars has been built and guided by two essential principles: a passion for winemaking and a deep connection to the land.
Founded in 2003, they completed the initial phase of the winery just in time for the inaugural 2004 vintage of the label bearing a Lewis and Clark map, illustrating their special place in the world. Based in the middle of the Willamette Valley, just 37 miles from the Pacific Ocean with the immense, cooling benefit of the Van Duzer Corridor running through the property.
In the seventeen years since their beginnings, Left Coast Cellars has gone from a largely grape growing operation with long term contracts with fellow Oregon producers, a wonderful opportunity to establish the high quality of their fruit, to an all Estate commitment. They farm 142 acres of vines on the nearly 500-acre Estate, largely sedimentary soil laid down by the Missoula floods and some volcanic soil as well.
Left Coast Cellars received a USDA grant in Oregon in 2008 to go solar, and the vast majority of the estate's electrical needs are supplied by the ground and roof mounted solar arrays. The winery and vineyards are LIVE certified, Salmon Safe, and were one of just six producers that went to a third-party verification in the initial Carbon Neutral Challenge, originally under the aegis of the Governor's Office, now folded into LIVE as a Carbon Reduction program.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.