White Walnut Estate Dundee Hills Chardonnay 2023

Jeb Dunnuck : 94 Points

(8/26/2025) Pouring a brilliant yellow with youthful green highlights, the 2023 Chardonnay Dundee Hills is barrel-fermented in 350- and 500-liter puncheons using native yeasts, with complete malolactic fermentation. The nose is bright and compact, opening to notes of salted lime, lime oil, green apple, and pineapple. Medium-bodied, with fantastic length and a chalky, slightly pithy texture, this is one of the finest appellation-level Chardonnays coming out of the Dundee Hills. Just 510 cases were produced.

Wine Advocate : 94 Points

(12/4/2025) The 2023 Chardonnay Dundee Hills has inviting scents of beeswax, hazelnut and matchstick over a deep core of ripe stone fruit. The medium-bodied palate boasts a dynamic interplay of highly concentrated, layered flavors with bright, shimmery acidity. It has a luxurious, satiny texture and a very long, elegant finish. Polished and precise, it should be long lived in the cellar. Drink Date: 2025 - 2040.

Decanter : 96 Points

(8/17/2025) Dazzling Chardonnay from the Dundee Hills Appellation bottling, Chris is focused on the Dundee Hills appellation; all of these sites are within two miles of the winery. This wine is composed of White Walnut, Apple Field, Olenik, Anderson Family, and Chris’ Terra Rosa sites. At $40, it’s hard to imagine a better Chardonnay than this. Everything is barrel-fermented in 350-500L puncheons, with very little new oak. Full native fermentation occurs, resulting in some browning of the juice. He presses long and hard, with no battonage for elevage. The wine spends 11 months in oak and then settles in tank for 3-4 months before bottling. Jumps out of the glass in aromatics, with notes of lemon curd, spice, and a flinty reductive element. The minerality soars, with crushed wet stone and a citrus austerity, complemented by a round, creamy lemon pastry cream. A dynamite Chardonnay with incredible texture. Drinking Window: 2025 - 2037.

James Suckling : 93 Points

(3/12/2025) A beautiful, tense and nervy chardonnay with an inviting nose of pears, waxy lemons, almonds, dried flowers and herbs. Vibrant and mouthwatering, this has a medium body with tense acidity and a tangy and succulent finish with some flinty, minerally elements. Drink or hold.