Press Room

Hawk Hill Vineyard Chardonnay Reviews

Score: 91 | September 1, 2021 | Wine Enthusiast

This is a salty, savory and lengthy white from a cool-climate site, richly layered in butterscotch and baked apple. Made in a hearty style, it remains fresh via underlying acidity and is accented in nutmeg and oak. Virginie Boone

Score: 91 | June 28, 2021 | Wine Enthusiast

This is a salty, savory and lengthy white from a cool-climate site, richly layered in butterscotch and baked apple. Made in a hearty style, it remains fresh via underlying acidity and is accented in nutmeg and oak. VIRGINIE BOONE

Score: 91 | October 1, 2020 | Wine Enthusiast

Luscious, layered and rich in butterscotch, toast and nutmeg, this vineyard designate is influenced by its cool-climate provenance in lasting acidity and a twist of mineral, which helps to balance the bolder flavors of mango and baked pear

Score: 92 | April 27, 2018 | Wine Advocate

The 2015 Chardonnay Hawk Hill Vineyard is youthfully mute to begin, opening out to notes of fresh grapefruit, white peaches and lime leaves with wafts of orange blossom and lanolin. Medium to full-bodied and tightly knit, it gives expressive stone fruit flavors and floral accents with a satiny texture and long, refreshing finish. 

Score: 92 | April 28, 2017 | Wine Advocate

The 2014 Chardonnay Hawk Hill Vineyard has a tropical fruit nose of guava and pineapple with suggestions of cedar, brioche, butterscotch and praline. Full-bodied, rich and seductively creamy in the mouth, it offers mouth-filling tropical and savory flavors with a lively backbone and great length.

Score: 91 | February 3, 2017 | Wine & Spirits

From a cold, foggy hillside vineyard in the southwestern corner of the Russian River Valley, this seems a bit burly at first, its vintage-driven warmth and oak spice meeting crunchy minerality. Then, bright acidity pushes its hearty yellow pear and butternut squash flavors toward a salty, marine briskness. It’s intense, substantial, fresh chardonnay; you could decant it now or age it a few years before pouring it with sweet, earthy miso-glazed black cod.

Score: 94 | February 1, 2017 | Wine Enthusiast

From a hillside spot pummeled by coastal influences, this lovely, light wine opens with a confectionary nose of meringue. Lemony acidity provides a lift of bright, focused tension balanced in concentrated stone fruit and spice with a strong oak backbone. 

Score: 90 | July 31, 2016 | Wine Spectator

Offers a broad, rich, expansive mix of citrus-infused tangerine, nectarine, white peach and honeysuckle flavors. Maintains thrust and focus, staying long and deep. –JL

Score: 94 | May 1, 2016 | Wine Enthusiast

A tremendous singlevineyard wine from a highly sought-after site, this white sings in great salty aromatics, almost as if it has captured wisps of fog from the nearby Pacific. Expansive on the palate, full bodied and completely balanced, it teases in caramel, finishing lithe and bright. —V.B.

Score: 88 | July 31, 2015 | Wine Spectator

Casts Chardonnay in a taut, flinty style, with lemon notes offset by green apple and honeydew accents. Ends clean and juicy. - JL

Score: 89 | December 1, 2013 | The Wine Advocate
The 2011 Chardonnay Hawk Hill Vineyard is slightly more mineral-dominated, revealing notes of wet gravel, honeysuckle and a hint of white peach. This medium to full-bodied, delicious, impressive 2011 Chardonnay should be drunk over the next 3-4 years.
Score: Gold Medal | September 30, 2012 | Sonoma County Harvest Fair
Score: 93 | June 1, 2012 | Wine Enthusiast
You’ll find plenty of fruit, in the way of ripe mangoes, peaches, green apples and limes, as well as a sweet coating of smoky oak. However, it’s elevated by brisk acidity and a stony, tangy minerality that must come from the soil of this cool-climate vineyard.
Score: 88 | November 1, 2011 | Wine Enthusiast
With notes of buttered toast, honey and vanilla cream, this Chardonnay is overpowered by new oak barrel influence. Beneath that are delicious fruit flavors of pineapples, oranges, pears and apricots. Rich and flashy in the popular style, with good acidity, but the heavy hand of oak limits the score. -S.H.