2018 Chardonnay DuMOL Estate Vineyard

This is a stellar set of 2023s from Andy Smith and Jenna Davis at DuMOL. Yields were low for Chardonnay but bountiful for Pinot Noir to the point of requiring considerable thinning of the crop. The Chardonnays are glorious, rich but not heavy, and incredibly expressive of place. That’s a pretty appealing combination in my book. A few of the Chardonnays are in bottle, but most will be bottled this winter. The Pinot Noirs might be even more impressive. They saw 18-21 days on the skins followed by very slow, gradual malolactic fermentations, with no added SO2 in aging until racking. The Bressay, MacIntyre and DuMOL Estate Pinots are all magnificent in the early going. Most of the Pinots had not been bottled at the time of my tastings. I will follow up once I have had a chance to taste the finished wines.

This is a gorgeous set of wines from DuMOL in a very challenging year. Frost in May, variable weather during bloom and severe drought resulted in vines with loose clusters and low yields. Chardonnay yields were down 30%, while for Pinot Noir, losses were more modest at 15%. "Drought pushed vines to build sugars quickly," Owner and Winemaker Andy Smith explained. "We had very cool weather in August. At that point, sugars stopped moving while acidities began to drop. That's when we started to bring fruit in." Harvest began on August 12, a full month earlier than 2023. Most of the fruit was in before the worst of the heat spike that was so problematic in other regions.

In tasting, the 2022s come across as a bit light in body. The wines don't have the dimension or dynamic intensity of years such as 2021. That is to be expected. In exchange, though, the wines will drink well with minimal cellaring. More than anything, I see the 2022s as wines of balance, of equilibrium.

The Pinots were done with fully destemmed fruit, except for the Bressay, which saw partial stem inclusion. Smith and the winemaking team gave the Pinots 17 months in barrel, with no racking, about two months longer than usual. The Chardonnays underwent their typical élevage of 11 months in barrel and 6-7 months in tank. Interestingly, I found the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from the Bressay and DuMOL Estate vineyards to be especially fine. Both are high-density vineyards. “In these vineyards, we are asking the plants to carry lower individual crops, so the vines are less affected by a lack of water,” Smith added. There are a lot of theories about optimal vineyard architecture in these climate change-challenged times. It’s a fascinating subject that warrants greater discussion.

My most recent visit to DuMOL focused on tasting all the 2021s that were in barrel when I stopped by last year. I am happy to report that the bottled 2021s are every bit as strong as they were from barrel. Unfortunately, my visit also coincided with the bottling of the 2022s, so I was not able to taste those wines. That can happen. Andy Smith is one of the most pragmatic winemakers I know in Sonoma. Bottling times rarely follow a formula and can vary from vintage to vintage and wine to wine, so the lineup here can also vary from tasting to tasting. I will follow up on the 2022s as soon as I have a chance to taste them.

Winemaker/Co-owner Andy Smith and Associate Winemaker Jenna Davis presented a breathtaking range of 2021s. I was blown away by the wines I tasted from DuMOL this year. Two thousand twenty-one is one of the greatest vintages I have tasted here. That is evident from the very first wines in this lineup. Despite drought conditions, the wines retain terrific acidity and tons of nuance. Interestingly, Smith reported that wines extracted easily in 2021. The Chardonnays are incredibly pure and brilliant. It's much the same in the Pinots, a stunning collection of wines that reaches its apogee with the Pinot Noir MacIntyre, one of the greatest California Pinots I have ever tasted. The theme of delineation and vibrancy continues through to the Syrahs and Cabernets. Most of the 2021s were in tank, hence scores are in parentheses. This is a very special set of wines that readers will not want to miss.

Andy Smith and his team turned out a positively stellar set of 2020 Sonoma wines in what was one of the most challenging years ever. To be sure, the 2020s are on the lighter side, the result of drought and heat that shocked the vines, plus the necessity of harvest that was accelerated in some spots to avoid fires. But the wines are clean and expressive.