2022 Donelan Viognier Kobler Family Vineyard
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Tasting notes
A pale silver/yellow color, the 2022 Viognier Kobler Family Vineyard is not your blousy and overly perfumed style of Viognier; rather, it’s a mineral-driven white that leads with notes of wet stone, white peach, fresh flowers, and beeswax. Pure and crystalline, the palate is refreshing yet doesn’t feel unripe, retaining texture and a lovely, pithy finish. It’s showing fantastically today and should continue to drink its best over the next 5-6 years. Started by Joe Donelan in 2000 in partnership with Pax Mahle of Pax Wine Cellars, Donelan changed its name to Donelan Family Wines in 2009. Based in Santa Rosa, it remains a committed producer of mostly Rhône-inspired wines under the leadership of Director of Winemaking and Viticulture David Milner. Donelan’s sons, Cushing (Director of Marketing) and Tripp (Director of Sales), also own and operate the brand and work with vineyard sites across Sonoma County. Tripp’s Block is their only non-Sonoma wine, the Pinot Noir grown at 2000-feet elevation in Perli Vineyard on the Mendocino Ridge, six miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2022 Viognier Russian River Valley is ripe with baked pear, tangerine, and toasted baking spice. Round, fleshy, and persistent through the palate, with ripe fruit as well as notes of orange oil, tropical flowers, and apricot, it has a delicate saline note on the finish. Drink it over the next couple of years.
The 2022 Viognier Kobler Family Vineyard creamy, layered and expansive on the palate, with lovely mid-palate richness and fine balance. Light floral accents, dried flower, nectarine and white peach bring out the understated side of Viognier. This is such an attractive, classy wine.