The 2024 Chardonnay Lady Marjorie is elegant, delicate and wonderfully nuanced. Lemon oil, crushed rocks, mint, slate and sage are finely delineated in a transparent, crystalline Chardonnay that is so impressive. The Lady Marjorie is a blend of sites in the Sonoma Coast. It's such a pure, nuanced Chardonnay.

These are some of the finest wines I have tasted from Raen and the team led by Proprietor Carlo Mondavi and Winemaker Melanie McIntyre. The warmer growing season was generally a positive for Raen’s cold, marginal sites. Yields were on the generous side, which is often not the case. What stands out most about the 2024s is their extraordinary balance. Whole clusters, which can sometimes speak with brash tones here, are beautifully integrated. Harvest ran from August 30 to September 9, several weeks earlier than in 2023. Readers will note the addition of a new wine, the Pinot Noir Pacific Rock, which emerges from the site also known as McDougall in the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA. I expect that wine will continue to improve now that the vineyard is being transitioned to organic farming, a process that takes seven to ten years to show full results. Last but certainly not least, the Charles Ranch Chardonnay deserves a special mention. This fruit is sourced from the Martinelli family’s first plantings in Fort Ross-Seaview, a site that was once considered too cold to grow grapes.