2017 Roar Sierra Mar Chardonnay

About 2017 Roar Sierra Mar Chardonnay:

Sierra Mar Vineyard, a dramatic rugged collection of plots, was planted with a Hyde selection of the Wente clone in 2007. Even at this early stage, it was pretty obvious what a special site Sierra Mar is.

Tasting Notes:

The 2017 Sierra Mar Chardonnay is shimmering green-hued yellow and has very pretty scents of dried chamomile, honeycomb, apple pie, toast and loads of honey-nut aromas over a peachy core. The palate is medium to full-bodied, intense and savory, with a silky texture and mouthwatering acidity to lift the very long, honeyed finish. This is savory Chardonnay with the volume turned up!

Barrel Selection:

White wines are barrel-fermented, finding an earlier experience with oak.

Growing Notes:

The vineyard carefully controls yields to produce the best grape quality possible. This takes careful monitoring throughout the season to achieve balance. Shoot thinning, leaf thinning, and cluster thinning all contribute to concentrated and complex flavors in the fruit at harvest time.

Winemaking Notes:

ROAR Wines represents a pure and expressive style that focuses on their distinctive vineyard sites. In their new winery, meticulously designed for their own estates and style, the experienced winemaking team experiments and innovates to coax the best attributes of each vintage. Their persistent attention to detail throughout the year results in consistent, yet exciting, wines that capture our ethos.

Just after night harvesting, the grapes travel a short distance from the vineyards to their winery in Monterey County. Here, Winery Manager Nick Franscioni and Winemaker Scott Shapley use their craft to guide the grape clusters through fermentation, steady aging in barrel, and to the finished wine in the bottle. It’s easier said than done to create consistent wines that authentically showcase each vineyard from one vintage to the next.

Small-lot fermentations allows for innovation while maintaining consistency. The fermentation vessels are wide, yielding a greater skin-to-juice ratio in the red wines. This extracts flavor, texture, and color that are signature to the winery’s style. White wines are barrel-fermented, finding an earlier experience with oak. This helps soften the more pronounced flavor and tannin from the oak, allowing a seamless integration during aging.

About The Winery:

ROAR Wines currently makes fifteen wines. They craft wines from the estate vineyards, guiding them from grafting to the bottle. Each wine is singular in its expression, reflecting its original personality from the terroir.

Sierra Mar Vineyard, a dramatic rugged collection of plots, was planted with a Hyde selection of the Wente clone in 2007. Even at this early stage, it was pretty obvious what a special site Sierra Mar is.

Viticulture is Roar’s way of life, and it’s important for them to leave a legacy of healthy, productive land to the future generations. Their long-term mentality is reflected in our experienced vineyard team. “Twenty-two years of many of the same workers, they are like family. And they only work in their vineyards,” Gary shares. These relationships result in a trust and wealth of knowledge that sets us apart.