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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.8 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 45 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Backdoctor on 1/14/2024 & rated 93 points: Great wine drinking well right now. Coats the mouth. Awesome chard (446 views) | | | Tasted by Beezc on 7/15/2023 & rated 91 points: It would have been much better a year earlier . Drink up. (594 views) | | | Tasted by deetz on 6/25/2023 & rated 93 points: Definitely showing its age and potentially starting down a slow decline, but still drinking beautifully. Needed 15-20 minutes in glass to wake up.
Expressive nose is a dead ringer for key lime pie with the perfect balance of bright citrus and and slightly tangy creaminess, almost like crème fraîche. Butterscotch, hazelnut, some baking spice that come through on the palate as well.
Typically my favorite vineyard designate of RM and this bottle doesn't disappoint (590 views) | | | Tasted by jbaron on 5/13/2023 & rated 90 points: This one seems aged…?
It’s nice enough to drink, for sure, but it might have been better and fresher a few years ago. (645 views) | | | Tasted by GoBlue2002 on 4/9/2023 flawed bottle: This was just not right... oxidized? (780 views) | | | Tasted by I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine on 11/17/2022 & rated 93 points: Luis Rides Again! (The Kenwood, Minneapolis, MN): Totally my style of Chardonnay....creamy texture with lots of pear, melon and apple with notes of spice and sweet oak, with a nice butterscotch/oaky finish. I like these, not sure why I don't buy any....thankfully, I have friends who do! 93+ and drinking well now! (1196 views) | | | Tasted by galewskj on 11/17/2022 & rated 93 points: Back at the Kenwood with Luis and the team: Very well received by the 8 of us. I heard someone mention that they'd drink more California chardonnay if they tasted like this. Complex and flavorful. Citrus on the nose, steely at cold temperatures and goes a bit sweet as it warms up. (997 views) | | | Tasted by btock on 11/17/2022 & rated 93 points: Classy, balanced in the glass. More translucent that other vintages of this, though a bigger profile. Baking spice aromatics, a touch of butterscotch on the finish. Paired with a squash and creme fraiche soup and that was a very nice match. This is ready now. (657 views) | | | Tasted by rocknroller on 11/17/2022 & rated 92 points: Light gold color. Meyer lemon and orange on the nose, cedar box; On the palate this is oily in texture, orange zest, Meyer lemon and tangerine, full bodied, butterscotch and oak. Very appealing and a more prototypical Cali chard compared to the '15 Brewer SRH. (1042 views) | | | Tasted by mflesh on 2/24/2022: Opened up this Chardonnay after a bottle of 2015 Kanzler RM Pinot Noir and this wasn't even fair. The Pinot was other worldly. I am really a little depressed that RM quit making pinot from Kanzler. This Chardonnay was good. Compared to the Sonoma Coast Chard from the same year, this one definitely was less musty right out of the bottle and there was much more to it from start to finish. I was surprised at how tropical this was in the fact that I was getting a lot of pineapple, honeysuckle and papaya from start to finish. A lot of acidic vibrance but not a lot of balance. Perhaps this one should have been consumed of one or two years prior and maybe the balance would have been a little bit better than it was showing today. I do have more recent offerings of this, so perhaps the secret is to drink the chardonnays younger and the pinots older! (1262 views) | | | Tasted by t_moderne on 2/19/2022 & rated 92 points: Pop and pour. Tasted at cellar temperature (55F) and then slightly chilled.
Light gold color.
Nose offers lime skin, hazelnuts, and underripe pineapple.
Round mouthfeel, with a lime custard following.
Richness and touch of sweetness, likely from the 14.2%abv. More alcohol than overripe fruit.
Nice acidity to balance it all. Delicious. Has an elegance and inviting richness yet not heavy.
Slight reductive note after refrigerating half bottle under vacuvin.
Quite enjoyable. (881 views) | | | Tasted by jsebiri on 11/26/2021: Very nice Cali chard, fruit , oak , butter , this is fine wine IMO…….Crazy as seems but this got lost in fridge vac’d 3 weeks later was really nice…… WINE (965 views) | | | Tasted by beezer6 on 9/1/2020 & rated 90 points: Very rich on the nose and palate. Lots of toasty baked apples. A little over the top for my liking but well made. (1863 views) | | | Tasted by fdub on 8/29/2020 & rated 93 points: Opens up nicely with air. Lemon curd with good depth and comes into great balance with an hour open. (1547 views) | | | Tasted by RobbieC on 6/19/2020: Lovely (1398 views) | | | Tasted by I1bearup on 4/12/2020 & rated 89 points: This vineyard can be epic from the right producer. This one is too woody and too fat. (1515 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 4/3/2020 & rated 91 points: Vanilla, cloves, honey and baked apples. Rich and unctuous. Volumptuous but perhaps a bit course. Very rich and thick. (1531 views) | | | Tasted by jbaron on 1/26/2020 & rated 93 points: Quite good. Flinty and appley and peary. Reticent nose, good length, and excellent, well refined and very large mouth. (1651 views) | | | Tasted by jmull on 1/18/2020 & rated 94 points: Pale gold. A litle shy on the nose but not on the palate. On the thicker, viscous side but not syrupy. Perfect pear flavors mingling with a hazelnutty quality and the slightest spice (nutmeg? Allspice?) The acids arevthe star tho, as they perfectly balance the weight here and keep you craving the next sip. in and year out, this bottling is exceptional. And 2016 may be the best I’ve tried. 94+ (1555 views) | | | Tasted by Dalex on 12/2/2019 & rated 92 points: Consumed over 36 hours. This is a great wine. Initially upon opening the oak was very present but it soon settled into the background to leave behind a very pure and clean palate of stone fruit and minerals. Typical lemon and nice acidity. This might need a few more years but so nice now once it has enough air for the oak to fade. (1866 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 5/8/2019 & rated 92 points: Excellent, with complex flavors of vanilla, lemon curd, cream and citrus. Just enough oak to season but not overwhelm the wine. Big, ripe and rich, but not over-done. Very lengthy, crisp, clean finish. (2213 views) | | | Tasted by Frank Murray III on 5/3/2019: Served blind, alongside the 2016 Cobb Mariani Chard. My first impression was a bit of vanilla bean. Then lemon oil, mix of yellow and green apple along with a good core of citrus fruit, rounded out by a little honey and a clean finish. There is just enough new oak here to not be bothersome to my palate, as it seasons the acidity and medium weight. As a side note, having now tasted all the 2016 RM Chards now (Joy and Bear are the others) within the past 6 months, this one is superior to those other two, showing for me the best. (2461 views) | | | Tasted by csimm on 1/14/2019 & rated 90 points: Initially heavy on the lamp oil, lemontini, and vanilla alcohol flavors, making for an angular entry and less-than-seamless delivery overall. Primary and somewhat hollow yellow citrus and bruised lemon fruit notes mid-palate. Finishes heavy with glycol and booze on the back end. An hour of open air improved the cocktail profile, but it never could shed itself of the overly oily and gummy texture. The glide was missing here.
An unusually ripe and somewhat extracted version of this wine. The RM 2016 Chardonnays seem to have a lot to work out. Potential there? Sure. But to what degree remains to be seen. I’m cautiously optimistic... very cautiously...
Best advice is more time in bottle. Hold for a year, though I fear this might simply put on more weight (which is not what this wine needs). However, the hopeful tradeoff from cellaring will be that it will better integrate, shedding some of that clunky booze. 87-90+? points. Try again in 2020. (4627 views) | | | Tasted by Frank Murray III on 7/26/2018: July 2018 Rivers-Marie Visit (At Mending Wall winery): Poured blind as part of a 3 wine flight of RM whites. We did not know the wines but given the portfolio, we knew we had to be in Chardonnay land. This is less intense than the 2014, and instead of green apple, this vintage of Thieriot is more yellow/golden apple. It's not as spicy as the 2014 but it does have the same lemony finish and the flint. I just find the 2014 to be a bit more crisp and intense than the 2016. (3883 views) | | | Tasted by csimm on 7/2/2018 & rated 92 points: PnP with a viscous and glycol-wrapped delivery on the front end; yellow citrus, Meyer lemon marmalade, lamp oil, vanilla-liqueur, and olive oil. A lot of booze on the back end, washing over the fruit, especially on the finish.
Give this another year in hopes it will figure out a way to integrate the elevated hootch currently distracting from the seemingly pure flavors. Angular and a little harsh at the moment. Not totally unforgivable; hopefully just needs time. Hold until 2019+.
DAY 2 UPDATE: I bumped this up a point. Less of the glycol overload, with more resolved yellow citrus flavors emerging. Still some wonky booze, but not as edgy and angular as on the first day. A wine to hold for a year+. (4322 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Jeb Dunnuck
JebDunnuck.com, Brilliance From Sonoma (6/5/2018)
(Rivers Marie Chardonnay B. Thieriot Vineyard) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, Sonoma’s Stellar 2016s (Apr 2018) (4/18/2018)
(Rivers-marie Chardonnay B. Thieriot Vineyard Sonoma White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, Sonoma Preview: January 2018 New Releases (Jan 2018) (1/18/2018)
(Rivers-marie Chardonnay B. Thieriot Vineyard Sonoma White) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of JebDunnuck.com and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Rivers-Marie Producer websiteChardonnay The Chardonnay GrapeUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Sonoma CountyMendocino CountySonoma Coast * Sonoma Coast AVA (Wikipedia)
* Sonoma Coast AVA (Wine Institue) |
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