From Jamaica and the Caribbean, Jerk Chicken is traditionally grilled but you could also roast in a 400-degree oven and finish under a hot broiler for a couple of minutes to crisp the skin and give it a little char.

Harvest is always a crucial step in the winemaking process and we all anxiously wait for exactly the right moment when the decision is made to begin. Generally speaking, our harvest here on the Sonoma Coast occurs in late August to early October When the time comes, we will be out in each individual block of our six vineyards analyzing and tasting the fruit. We closely monitor the brix and pH levels of the grapes and taste to ensure the flavor will be just right. As soon as we have identified that a vineyard block has reached its peak of ripeness, we send word to our harvest crew that it is time to begin picking.

Because cooler temperatures help our grapes to retain the highest concentration of flavor, harvest starts in the middle of the night and continues through the early morning hours. Most of Sonoma-Cutrer’s grapes are handpicked and placed in special bins created just for us. They are unusually shallow ensuring that the clusters are not crushed under their own weight and are delivered to the winery in pristine condition.

Once the fruit is brought to the winery, we chill it further in our cooling tunnels. These tunnels are the only ones of their kind and are essentially a blast chiller that has the ability to bring the temperature of the grapes down to 50˚in 45 minutes. Having our fruit cool helps it retain its flavor, avoid harsh extractiveness and reduces the potential for oxidation during processing.

Still touched only once, the cool fruit travels to the sorting tables where the clusters are hand – not machine – sorted. This is a highly, labor-intensive step in the process but it ensures that only the grapes of the highest quality make it to the press. Once the grapes fill the press, it slowly and gently crushes them helping us avoid extracting bitter tannins. The cool, golden-free run juice from the press is sent to tanks where it is allowed to settle for 24 hours. After racking, yeast is then added to the tanks before the juice is sent to French oak barrels to complete the fermentation and maturation of the wine.

Harvest is one of the hardest, most exhausting parts of our entire year, but it also one of the most exciting and rewarding.

Cheers, Mick

For over thirty years, Sonoma-Cutrer has been dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in our wines, specifically Chardonnays. Behind this almost singular focus is a story about serendipity, place and the pursuit of perfection.

In the early 1970s, after sampling a particularly memorable Bordeaux at an auction in Paris, Sonoma-Cutrer’s founder returned to America with a mission: to produce a wine that was Old World in its quality and elegance, yet thoroughly California in its expression. This pursuit ultimately would help usher in an era of world-class California Chardonnays. First, however, he had to find the right setting.

At the time, vineyard property was expensive in Sonoma Valley, where Cabernet grapes reigned supreme. Planted on the only piece of affordable property he could find (part of which was rock quarry), the first year’s Cabernet vines failed spectacularly, falling prey to the foggy, cool microclimate. Though disastrous for Cabernet, the climate, the founder would soon discover, was a perfect match for Chardonnay, making Sonoma-Cutrer one of the earliest producers of Chardonnay fruit in the Russian River Valley.

An admirer of the rigorous craftsmanship that defined Old World methods of winemaking and realizing that grape growing was a much more complicated undertaking than he had initially imagined, the founder decided to focus only on a single varietal until he reached what he considered to be perfection. What began as a strategic decision to focus on Chardonnay gradually consolidated into an unwavering commitment to and ongoing love affair with the often underestimated varietal.

Known as the ubiquitous grape because it’s relatively easy to grow (it’s the #1 most produced grape in the world), California Chardonnay, though vastly produced, has not historically been a particularly diverse wine, with most flavor profiles fulfilling the ‘bold, buttery, oaky’ stereotype. From our earliest days, however, Sonoma-Cutrer’s Old World winemaking techniques and our Grand Cru philosophy to winemaking- combined with the microclimates of our vineyards have enabled us to present a different view of Chardonnay to the world, revealing the world’s most commonplace grape to be capable of surprising range and nuance.

Sonoma County is comprised of luxury resorts, fine restaurants, major highways, small towns, pastures, country inns, back roads, as well as, the ubiquitous idyllic vineyards. All of this is just over the Golden Gate Bridge, a short 45 miles from San Francisco. The number one grape varietal that you will find planted in Sonoma County is Chardonnay.

Within Sonoma County is the Russian River Valley. What in the world can Russians have to do with California wine country you ask? Well, the Russians were the first non-natives to settle in Sonoma County at Fort Ross from 1812 to 1841. They are credited for the first vineyard plantings in Sonoma County, but the type of grapes they planted is not known. Official status of the Russian River Valley as an American Viticulture Area came in 1983.

The Russian River Valley has approximately 15,000 acres of vines planted within its 169,000 acres of land. There are over 200 grape growers and 70 wineries in this AVA fraction of Sonoma County. In general, it is considered to be one of the finest areas in California to grow grapes.

Among wine aficionados, the Russian River Valley is one of the pinnacle for Pinot Noirs. The area is known for making rich and flavorful, world-class Pinot Noir. While Pinot Noir may garner the most attention, the number one planted grape, by over a thousand acres, is still Chardonnay. All other grape varieties in the Russian River Valley are significantly smaller in the number of planted acres. So, at the end of the day, one could say the Russian River Valley is all about Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Why does the Russian River Valley grow great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir? One of the many reasons is the fog. Every day the fog is drawn in from the Pacific Ocean and can decrease the air temperature by as much as 40 degrees. This creates a cooler growing temperature that high quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes require and gives the wines a touch more natural acidity for balance and complexity. Try Sonoma-Cutrer’s single vineyard Chardonnay, The Cutrer, and their Russian River Valley Pinot Noir for two wines that exemplify the exceptional quality of fruit grown in the Russian River Valley.

About the Author

A Certified Wine Educator, Scott is one of 135 professionals in North America and 214 worldwide who have earned the title Master Sommelier.

Since Sonoma-Cutrer’s establishment in 1981, only three select individuals have held the revered role of Sonoma-Cutrer’s Director of Winemaking: William Bonetti, Terry Adams and Michael “Mick” Schroeter. Sonoma-Cutrer’s winemakers must have the unique talent of balancing the art of winemaking with the science behind the crafting of our highly-acclaimed wines. Each of our winemakers are innovators in the field, pioneers who have not only established and sustained the uncompromising standards at Sonoma-Cutrer, but also influenced the wine industry at large.

This year’s limited-production Winemaker’s Release held special meaning when we realized our unique opportunity to invite all three of these masters to collaborate on an exclusive offering.

This year, Bonetti, Adams and Schroeter, have come together to craft the second in our Winemaker’s Release series aptly named Legacy. Every year, a handful of the very best barrels are set aside to create Sonoma-Cutrer’s Founders Reserve Chardonnay, our most distinctive Chardonnay. These three winemakers performed the honor of selecting the barrels to produce our most exclusive and historic vintage of this wine that has ever been crafted – Legacy. Founders Reserve Legacy is only the second wine to be produced in our Winemaker’s Release series.

When the winemakers came together for their blending session, the mutual respect shared among them was palpable. As they progressed through selecting the wine, the winemakers tasted and weighed in, discussed adjustments and fine-tuned the blend. Just a few rounds later and all three winemakers set down their glasses and exchanged a knowing glance. Without a word, they knew they had reached a unanimous consensus – this is the one.

We shouldn’t have been surprised by how seamless the collaboration was. After all, these craftsmen set the standards for Sonoma-Cutrer wines and defined the characteristics found in each of our Chardonnays.

Founders Reserve Legacy is the culmination of nearly a century of collective winemaking expertise. Each bottle is infused with a shared devotion to the craft and enduring passion for Sonoma-Cutrer.

Order a bottle of this limited-edition Winemaker’s Release today to own an exclusive piece of Sonoma-Cutrer’s history.

California Chardonnay has traveled a storied journey through the decades, from The Judgment of Paris wine tasting in 1976, when a California Chardonnay beat out four French white Burgundies, to the heavy oak and butter-laden styles of the nineties that led to the unfair backlash dubbed ABC (Anything But Chardonnay).

Throughout all of the fads, from butter bombs and big oak styles to crisp, fruit-forward unoaked varieties, Sonoma-Cutrer has stayed the course. Our unwavering vision has always been the same: produce the best Chardonnay possible by combining Old World craftsmanship with New World innovation.

From the beginning, our terroir-driven Grand Cru approach has married traditional Burgundian winemaking methods with state-of-the-art technologies to produce elegantly structured Chardonnays that are deeply rooted in a sense of place.

So what does that mean, exactly?

For one, it means that barrels used at Sonoma-Cutrer are made of fine French oak that we handpick from forests in the heart of France and then have crafted into barrels at generations-old family-owned cooperages in Burgundy.

It also means that innovation has always been part of the equation. Take, for example, our cellar. Rather than digging into a hillside, we removed an entire hill in order to create the perfect cave-like conditions for aging, then reconstructed the hill around our 20,000-square-foot cellar.

This meticulous approach infuses our wines with subtleties and nuance not always found in Chardonnay. In Sonoma-Cutrer’s early days, when many popular California Chardonnays were anything but complex, this refined style was rather revolutionary.

Today, Chardonnay is finding its way back into the spotlight once again as more winemakers embrace food-friendly styles that balance fruit and oak, much like our own Chardonnays. And whether it’s a trend or more of a movement (though it certainly feels like the latter), the current emphasis on more elegant Chardonnay is one we embrace.

No matter what the future holds for the world’s most popular grape, we’ll be right here making our Chardonnay the way we always have – in our own uniquely Grand Cru style.