2014 Russian River Woolsey Road Chardonnay
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Tasting notes
Woolsey is planted on Huichica clay-loam over clay. This cool site was planted with old Wente cuttings taken from Platt vineyard, which had been sourced from the Hyde vineyard. Whole-cluster pressed. Juice is browned out (deliberately oxidised to help with mouthfeel and mitigate any potential issues with premox) in the press pan and tank and then lightly sulphured prior to being put into barrel. Ambient-yeast fermentation and malolactic conversion. Lees-stirring occurs every two weeks while the wine is going through malolactic conversion. Aged 19 months in 26% new French oak barrels. Medium lemon in colour. A bit muted, with lemon blossom and butterscotch. Elevated, mouth-watering acidity and lighter on the palate than the 2020. Lingering finish. (SCJ)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2014 Chardonnay Woolsey Road Vineyard makes a strong argument for the quality of the wine from this vineyard, displaying outstanding complexity in its beautifully layered aromas of lemon curd, toasted vanilla bean spice, ripe apples, and toasted almond. It’s full bodied and has great underlying tension, with saline, ripe peach fruit. and a fantastically long finish with clean lift. This is in an outstanding place now but has lots of life ahead of it. Founded in 1996 by David and Carla Ramey, the Rameys are continuing to produce benchmark wines, while raising the bar for what Sonoma can achieve. In 2022, the Healdsburg-based winery was officially handed over to their children, Claire and Alan, who now share responsibility as co-presidents. During my tasting with Dave, Claire, and Alan, they arranged several side-by-side comparisons with reference point wines from other wine regions. The highlight of these comparisons came when I tasted the 2020 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard alongside the Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey 2020 Saint-Aubin Premier Cru En Remilly Hommage A Marguerite (94 points), as well as the Domaine Michelot 2020 Meursault Premier Cru Perrieres (92 points). While the Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey was wonderfully impressive and textural, the Hyde had fantastic purity and length by comparison. The Domaine Michelot has the structure to have some longevity but felt a touch weedy, which masked its otherwise purer characteristics of green apple, citrus, and toast. It fell short compared to the Hyde and the Saint-Aubin, which was surprising considering the pedigree of this Premiere Cru site from Meursault. The overarching theme across the tasting was the longevity and balanced nature of the wines from Ramey, which comes as less and less of a shock to me as I get to know their wines more intimately. Though I personally have an affinity for the whites, these wines offer tremendous value with age-worthiness across the portfolio.
The 2014 Chardonnay Woolsey Road Vineyard is a powerful, intense wine with real phenolic intensity. This is an especially rich, deep and layered wine with exquisite finesse and pedigree. Readers should be prepared to cellar the 2014 for at least a few years. This is a special Chardonnay in the making.
The 2014 Chardonnay Woolsey Road Vineyard has exotic jasmine, pineapple and guava notes with hints of crème brulee and croissant. Medium-bodied with plenty of finesse in the mouth, it gives a nice balance between the fruit and savory flavors, with a silken texture and finishing long and toasty.