Ferren 2021 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

Matt Courtney is a gentle soul with the Midas touch for making drop dead gorgeous Californian Chardonnay from some of the finest goldridge soils of the Sonoma Coast. The philosophy here is in some respects a continuation of the style Matt developed while making the Marcassin wines for Helen Turley – naturally high acid sites allowed to mature to full natural ripeness – but there’s another level of precision, detail and elegance in the Ferren bottlings that Matt crafts on his own.

These are glowing Chardonnays of texture and depth that are vinified with great care and patience in the state-of-the-art Arista winery in the Russian River valley. When people talk about the names making waves in Sonoma Chardonnay world, Aubert sits at one extreme, hugely scored, powerful, rich wines that command the attention, while Ted Lemon at Littorai occupies the other flank with crisp, racy Chardonnays driven by acidity and steely structures. Matt’s Ferren wines would sit to the Aubert side of the centre, with their sunny California dispositions and engaging charm, but they also possess incredible precision and focus, as well as a freshness that makes them both compelling, and hugely moreish.

The 2021 vintage is a benchmark vintage for Ferren, as it is across the region. Cooler temperatures, and small berries has given rise to a vintage with natural structure and extract, which in turn enhances the sense of freshness you find in the wines. We have not tasted a better vintage from Matt Courtney. Fans of the estate will not want to miss these.

Quantities of the single vineyard wines are tiny, so balanced orders will be given priority. The Sonoma Coast bottling is produced from the single vineyard fruit, selected to drink a little earlier, and as a way of tightening up the top wines. It tends to overperform and offers up a portrait of a precision winemaker working exceptional fruit. This year it includes for the first time a new vineyard called Zephyr from Freestone, that will appear as a single vineyard in 2022. Galloni decrees it “a terrific offering in its peer group – or any peer group” and we would not disagree.

For full tasting notes on the wines in this offer, please follow the link below to our website.