2013 Chardonnay Estate

This is a gorgeous set of wines from Tom Rochioli. My sense is that the wines, the Chardonnays in particular, are being made in a bit more of a laid-back style relative to the past, with greater emphasis on freshness and gentler extractions. Readers will sense that right away in the Estate, the only Rochioli Chardonnay that enters broad distribution. There is plenty of depth in the Chardonnays, but there is little question the wines have shifted away a bit from the more overt approach favored in years past. The 2013 Pinots are also quite expressive. Here, too, the wines are less extracted than they used to be, but changes in the vinification of Pinot started a few years earlier than they did in Chardonnay. The 2013 harvest started in September with the Pinots, followed by the Sauvignon Blanc and wrapped up with the Chardonnays in October. Rochioli remains a reference point estate for the Russian River Valley and Sonoma more broadly.