The area around the top of San Francisco Bay known as Los Carneros has a maritime climate with lots of morning fog in the summer and cool evenings. We get grapes from the Sangiacomo family whose vineyards are on the adobe clay soils between the town of Sonoma and the Petaluma Gap and from the Durell Vineyard, which lies just behind the first hills of the Sonoma Valley. Both of these vineyards add a citrus fruit aroma, and flavors that are reminiscent of peaches and melon.

Tasting notes

The wine has juicy, luscious, peach tones along with honeysuckle and candied pineapple on the nose. The palate reveals more ripe tropical fruit, particularly pineapple and mango, with the barest hint of butter and lemon on the palate. The wine has an exceptionally long finish that goes on and on. This wine is excellent with shellfish, seafood fettuccini, and on the back porch with friends.

Wine maker notes

The style of the wine is different from previous bottlings as we were able to ferment all of the wine in oak barrels. Most of the new barrels went into the Steele Cuvée and single vineyard Sangiacomo and Durell bottling. The remaining barrels were typically four to five years old with a few new barrels used for flavor and aroma. The wine is still lighter and crisper than the typical Steele Chardonnay bottling.

Other text

The grapes for our Shooting Star Santa Barbara Chardonnay are from a vineyard situated on the banks of the Sisquoc River. This is a particularly cool climate, well suited to growing Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir. Because of the maritime influence from the nearby Pacific the valleys are blanketed in fog until noon during much of the growing season.