RouteStock is an invitation to discover the deep roots of winemaking in Napa and Sonoma, planted firmly at each step of your journey through our vineyard sites. Every glass tells the story of Napa and Sonoma’s remarkable fine wine heritage, from the famous routes that wind between the vineyards, to the roots that produce its world-renowned grapes. An endeavor of enduring Napa-based importer Wilson Daniels, RouteStock is established as a product that consistently over-delivers in quality at a very attractive price point.

At the core of RouteStock is our commitment to sourcing great fruit from high-end vineyards along well-known routes in the Napa Valley. We partner with a select group of dedicated grape-growers in the best viticultural areas for each of our varietals and we work hand-in-hand with all our growers during the cultivation season. We practice minimal intervention in our winemaking to help the grapes show their true character, using native yeasts, natural malolactic fermentation, 100% barrel aging, and no chemical additions. Our intent is to let the grapes and vintage tell us what kind of wine they should be – we never try to force the wine into a specific mold, but rather serve as a guide on its journey.

We are thrilled to transition our Chardonnay to Sonoma Coast appellation so we can include our estate vineyard for the first time. Our estate vineyard is in the Sebastopol Hills area of the southwest part of Sonoma Coast and has four acres of 24-year-old Chardonnay vines with two clones (95 and 17/Robert Young). Our vineyard is blended with fruit from one of our dedicated grape growers located to the northwest of our vineyard and they supply us with the Wente clone of Chardonnay.

2021 was marked by no wildfires but was a smaller vintage. It was a nicely even vintage with budbreak, flowering, and veraison all happening at “normal” times. There was a heat burst around Labor Day that helped speed things along to a mid-September harvest under ideal conditions. We harvested the majority of our two vineyards under the full moon of September 20th.

The wine has a brilliant straw color with seductive aromas of wild thyme, fresh oregano, Meyer lemon and seckel pear. The flavors are sharply focused, bright yet expansive with an amazing balance of lemon, pear, fresh herbs and a slight kiss of very pretty French oak that dance together to create a mesmerizingly complex wine that balances on the razors edge between lean/crisp and opulent/effusive. The long lingering finish brings you back for another sip, another glass, another bottle!