Blog

Over the last two years, we have been quietly creating a little slice of heaven for you in Russian River Valley. We weren’t actively looking for a property, but we also dreamt of bringing Auteur into the Sonoma’s stunning countryside. So when 10520 crossed our paths, it was magic. When we first visited this special space, we immediately felt a powerful affinity for this piece of land – with its rugged slope of bay, redwood and fir trees, sweeping vineyard views, and the natural springs, we knew it would be a place of renewal, a place to move more slowly, to follow the rivers windy path and to find solace in the shade of towering redwoods and chase the dappled light all the way to the Pacific.

From our hilltop, we offer an uninterupped panoramic embrace of the Russian River Valley located on Wohler Road outside of Healdsburg. Perched on a wooded vineyard hillside, this intimate retreat embraces the region’s vineyards and coastal forests, offering immersive hospitality experiences that draw guests into a setting as layered and expressive as Auteur’s wines.

We can’t wait to welcome you at both locations anchored at both ends of Sonoma County.

Wine critics are buzzing about our zingy and earthy flavors! Our value-friendly appellation wines are crafted with passion for embodying the essence of our entire portfolio. We are thrilled to receive such a positive response from the press and warmly invite you to experience this excitement firsthand. Cheers to an endless array of new adjectives to bring to your next celebration.

The SOMM Journal

Oh Terre! Auteur!

95 | Auteur 2022 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast ($50)

Toasty notes are sustained by high-profile acidity. Crème brûlée and pineapple upside-down cake make a dramatic impression as they’re surrounded by bright lemon verbena on the keen mineral finish. 95

96 | Auteur 2022 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast ($60) This wine boasts delectable notes of cinnamon-spiced pomegranate, hibiscus, and mineral-kissed earth. A pleasant, buoyant mouthfeel upholds black raspberry, a garland of rose petals, and salty mushrooms rooted out of the soil.

WINE ENTHUSIAST Editors’ Choice

93 | Auteur Wines 2022 Chardonnay (Sonoma Coast)

There’s a zingy freshness on the pineapple-scented nose of this Chard made from the Old Wente clone that simply screams summer. The palate gives green apple, pear, lemon curd, chalky minerality and fresh cut flower flavors before a racy, acid-driven finish. —T.R.C. Published 9/1/2024

VINOGRAPHY

2022 Auteur Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma, California
Pale yellow-gold in the glass, this wine smells of candied lemon peel and pink grapefruit. In the mouth, wonderfully bright and juicy flavors of lemon peel and lemon pith bring in a faint bit of lemon-curd creaminess but also crackling stony minerality and a hint of salinity. Zingy and mouthwatering. Whole-cluster pressed and then fermented with ambient yeasts. Aged 11 months in 25% new French oak. 13% alcohol. 392 cases made. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $50. AY

2022 Auteur Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma, California
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cherries and raspberries. In the mouth, raspberry and cranberry flavors have a bright juiciness thanks to excellent acidity as faint, gauzy tannins coat the mouth, and notes of citrus peel linger in the finish. Hints of dried herbs and a touch of forest floor emerge with time. Fermented with ambient yeasts. Aged 11 months in 35% new French oak. 14% alcohol. 621 cases made. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $60. AY

Read the full review here from wine critic, Alder Yarrow.

https://www.vinography.com/2024/11/vinography-unboxed-week-of-11-10-24

WINE SPECTATOR

92 | Auteur Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Kirsch and red licorice notes are forward and friendly in feel in this red, with light floral and tea notes helping to add range on the lightly toasted finish. Drink now through 2030. 621 cases made.

90 | Auteur Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 

Pretty aromatics of lemon oregano, verbena and green tea mingle with firm flavors of pomelo, lemon zest and green apple on a sleek, mouthwatering frame, with touches of crushed rock minerality and fresh ginger on the finish. Drink now. 392 cases made.

JEB DUNNUCK

91 | Auteur Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

The 2022 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast offers an attractive nose of candied apple, preserved lemon, and honeysuckle. Medium-bodied, it has a light touch on the palate and a nice refreshing feel, with a pithy texture and a clean finish. It’s a very charming wine to drink over the next several years.

91 | Auteur Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

The dark ruby/magenta 2022 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast takes on deep aromas of black cherries, violets, and sweet herbs. Medium-bodied, it fills the palate with an expansive feel, ripe tannins, and a juicy ripe feel throughout, with a bit of spice through the finish. It’s going to show its best over the next 4-6 years.

On a typical Carneros morning, the fog lingers in Hyde Vineyards, one of the most hallowed sites for grape-growing in all of California. But what truly stands out when we walk the Hyde property is the airy sea breezes off San Pablo Bay, where you smell the mix of sea salt and garrique. It’s an extraordinary feeling that we consistently and clearly expressed in the salinity characteristics of our Hyde Chardonnay.
Hyde Vineyards is a majestic and impressive 200-acre vineyard situated in Napa County, first cultivated in 1979. Managed by Larry Hyde and his son Chris, who is about to take over the business. Chris, who could carry a large Napa ego, is the farthest from it. Hyde’s are very serious about paying attention to the details and striving for excellence: tiny berries, tiny clusters, great acidity. But every time they replant a section, they adapt to the site better by replacing blocks northeast by southwest in the same direction of the prevailing winds.

Chardonnay from Hyde Vineyard is highly sought-after and has won multiple accolades. It is a highly collectible vineyard to follow. Noteworthy labels include Aubert, HDV, Kistler, Ramey, Mira, Patz & Hall, Ram’s Gate, Saxon Brown, Bouchaine, Massican, and Auteur.

We encourage you to compare a few extraordinary Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay selections.

___________________________________

Hyde Vineyards
County: Napa
Appellations: Carneros; Napa Valley
Year first planted: 1979
Total acres planted: 200
Chardonnay acres: 113
Primary Chardonnay clones: Hyde Wente; Hyde San Benito; Musque
Soil types: Haire; clay loam
Sustainable and organic practices

____________________________________

Wine Spectator’s California’s Best Chardonnay Vineyards Article Link

94 | Wine Enthusiast

Auteur Named Winery of the Year by the Local Sonoma Community!

We are proud to be named Winery of the Year in the Best of Sonoma list. For more outstanding recommendations, click the link above. With nearly 1,800 square miles to explore, it’s no wonder Sonoma County has captured the hearts of so many. Join us soon on your adventure—we can’t wait to welcome you!

BEST OF SONOMA LIST, CLICK HERE

Explore Sonoma: A Local’s Guide to Our Favorite Hangouts ~ All within easy walking distance from Auteur

As we live and work in the heart of downtown Sonoma, we thought we would share some of our favorite local hometown picks. 

We are located on the Northwest corner of the historic Sonoma Plaza. Across the way, our lawns of Sonoma Square are adorned with picnic tables, allowing for a lazy lunch in the sunshine. Stop by for a tasting and enjoy a bottle of cold Auteur chardonnay for a picnic lunch. Or, only steps away from us is El Dorado and Girl and the Fig. Tuesday night is the Sonoma Plaza’s Farmer’s Market, and the plaza is packed full of local purveyors and live music in Spring through late Fall.

With two world-class resorts, MacArthur Place and The Lodge, you are just minutes from some of the best restaurants in Sonoma. Enjoy wandering our neighborhood and sauntering down Sonoma’s cobbled streets and cafe-lined plaza. Serving California home cooking, driven by seasonal produce focusing on organic, biodynamic, regenerative & traditional agricultural practices. Come taste wines with us after your Valley brunch. Valley is our new neighborhood restaurant, wine bar, and bottle shop, just one block south of us in Sonoma, CA.

Cafe La Haye is diagonally across the Sonoma Plaza from Auteur and is an iconic gem with romantic white tablecloth settings serving sophisticated and classic California cuisine with a locally curated wine list by owner Saul himself. We love the fresh local cuisine and Saul’s attentive service.

Two doors down, enjoy roasted Maitake mushrooms with chimichurri sauce at El Dorado Kitchen. A hands-down favorite, mainly because of its fantastic outdoor patio, bustling vibe, and unique twist of favorite dishes with exotic finishing touches. The truffle fries are excellent if you need a little comfort food. And it’s easy to get there!

Ask for Sommelier Becky to help select a perfect wine. Wit & Wisdom is Michelin-rated Michael Mina’s only Sonoma wine country restaurant with a 5-star wine list, mixed with local producers as well as impressive international selections. As expected with a Mina restaurant, the service is impeccable.

Our backyard backs up to Girl & the Fig and is almost a right of passage when visiting Sonoma. The focus is on a tremendous European-styled menu as their focus is on Rhone wine varietals. We love snuggling up at the awesome cozy bar for the fig and arugula salad and duck confit with excellent bartending service to spill the beans on where you should go next.

If your palate needs a refresher and wants a great cocktail, stop at the Swiss Hotel for people-watching and a fire-tossed pizza. MacArthur Place has the most groovy bar in town and stunning grounds. The Beacon feels nothing like Sonoma and more like a speakeasy crafting great cocktails.  Starling is a mile west in the city and has dive-bar energy, killer cocktails, often music, and sometimes comedy.

The grand finale after all the wine country cuisine or rehab after a great Sonoma wedding, try Lou’s Luncheonette for home-cooked breakfast biscuits or the epic Two Burn Chicken Sando with a draft beer and cue up an afternoon nap. The only place on the outskirts of town is to buy a fantastic bike ride to burn calories.

Have fun meandering through our hometown of Sonoma.  Heck, look around. You might see us – we live a few blocks away.

Come see us at Auteur.

xx, l&k

Our Local Winemaker’s Best of Sonoma List ~

MacArthur Place

Valley

The Lodge

Cafe La Haye

El Dorado Kitchen

Wit & Wisdom

Girl & the Fig

Swiss Hotel

The Beacon

Starling

Lou’s Luncheonette

Auteur’s expression of this Savoy tackles robust foraged fruit notes with spice and earthen tannins. There is a pioneering spirit and something rogue about Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs that Savoy captures like a Robert Redford movie.

“One of the Five California Vineyards You Need to Know” as quoted by Lettie
Teague of the Wall Street Journal, alongside benchmark California Vineyards
Beckstoffer To Kalon, Hirsch, Hyde and Bien Nacido.

Savoy Vineyard is arranged in 32 sub-blocks— dedicated to sustainably farmed Pinot Noir in the heart of the Anderson Valley. It was originally planted by Richard Savoy in 1991 who was deeply passionate about Burgundy and continues to be managed with “row by row farming” that is unique to each winemaker.

Our 2021 Auteur Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir is available to members or at our boutique tasting room off the Sonoma Plaza. For more information on our Anderson Valley wines, please feel free to reach out to us!

JUNE 2023 UPDATE: We are pleased to announce, Savoy has been purchased from Napa Winery, Clif Lede to our friends at Donum Estate where Kenneth started his journey in Pinot Noir in coastal Northern California 20 years ago. They plan to maintain their contracts with independent growers and focus on regenerative and sustainable, no-till farming practices. It’s a cornerstone of our portfolio.

Grower Highlight: The Art of Chardonnay, Bacigalupi Family Review of Auteur’s Vineyard Expression

With twenty years of experience in the industry, we know that a genuine partnership stands out. We felt an undeniable spark when we connected with the Bacigalupi team and family. Securing a vineyard designate name from Bacigalupi requires the approval of their esteemed wine team, and we are proud to say we achieved that. Here are their insightful notes on our collaboration.

Auteur 2021 Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay – Reviewed by The Bacigalupi Winemaking Team

Nose: Led by alluring aromas of crisp apple, ripe melon, tangy grapefruit, lemon chiffon, vanilla bean, fresh ginger and roasted almonds, this wine is immediately appealing to the senses.

Palate: On the first few sips, the wine is shy. But once it opens, it fills the palate with a balanced attack of naturally sweet, tart and tangy fruit notes of crisp apple, poached pear, pomelo, ripe mango and fresh picked plantains, which harmonize with hints of chanterelle mushroom, white chocolate bark, creamy nougat, nutmeg and other savory spices that heighten the level of class on the lengthy finish.

Body/Texture: Unlike the cookie-cutter, ready-to-drink white wines made for the masses, this is a sophisticated artisanal style of Chardonnay that slowly reveals its strengths instead of flexing muscles in the beginning. On Day one, the pure fruit flavors and the invigorating qualities of the wine are guided by a burst of bright natural acid that preserves the fresh, youthful, and refreshing elements in each sip. And as the flavors become more complex, the smooth, suede-like texture plays a critical role in highlighting the wine’s more elegant, refined, and powerful traits, as well as its ability to age.

Overview: This sample is a fantastic example of this winemakers style, which highlights the unique flavors of grapes grown at Bacigalupi Vineyards and creates a well-balanced, world-class wine designed to be rich, elegant, complex, and not overbearing. As a testament to its age-ability, it was even more ethereal after five days.

Recommendation: YES

Harvest is in full swing in Sonoma. As of today, all of our Sonoma Chardonnay and Pinot Noir have started their fermentations at the winery. Our more extreme coastal sites, and still enjoying their last few days of summer ripening. Overall the growing season gave us naturally low yields, which is always our preference. It made for fewer passes in the vineyards, and the fruit got a nice warm bump over the Labor Day weekend, averaging around 23-23 Brix upon early morning arrivals at the winery. We have some exciting experiments in the winery and a few new vineyards in the coveted Sebastopol Hills with the Russian River appellation. As always, we are grateful and look forward to seeing what the fruit teaches us this vintage.

We look forward to sharing more on the 2022 vintage as the wines progress in the cellar. In the meantime come visit us at our Sonoma Bungalow in the heart of wine country.