Sixto Frenchman Hills Chardonnay 2015
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
One whiff of this amazing wine writes a poem of a beautiful high elevation Chardonnay. Meyer lemon curt, cool autumn sun & delicate summer blossoms abound on the palate as it continues on to a glorious finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chardonnay Frenchman Hills Vineyard is very attractive, wafting from the glass with notes of buttered yellow orchard fruit, honeycomb, subtle spice and struck match. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, glossy and ample, with bright acids, lovely grip and tension and a chalky, flavorful finish. It's a very compelling Washington State Chardonnay.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Chardonnay Frenchman Hills offers a similar rich, ripe, sexy style, with a touch more minerality as well as toasted nut notions. Deep, rich, concentrated, and opulent, yet always with a fresh style, it's another ripe, toasty, rich Chardonnay to drink over the coming 2-3 years.
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Wine Spectator
Plush and graceful, with expressive pear, wax and spice accents that take on weight toward the finish. Drink now through 2021.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine—one of three vineyard-designated offerings from the winery—is all about nuance, with notes of flower, lees, cream, lemon curd and spice. The palate brings layers of elegant flavors that carry into the distance on the finish.
Other Vintages
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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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.