Ceritas Chardonnay Zephyr 2021

Broad and phenolic, the Zephyr leads with texture rather than fruit, a West Sonoma Coast signature worn openly. Dried orange peel, anise, crushed stone and a thread of dried herb build across a dense, layered mid-palate. There's real weight here, but it's structural weight, the kind that comes from the Red Car estate's Freestone soils rather than residual sugar or oak. Fruit sits in the background, almost deliberately so, while the finish turns stony and long. Give it two to three years for the pieces to settle.