Chardonnay (1984)

About this wine

This is a 1984 vintage Chardonnay from Chateau St. Jean, a Sonoma County winery founded in 1973 and known early on for pioneering vineyard designated Chardonnay bottlings. Alexander Valley sits along the Russian River in northeastern Sonoma County, and the area is known for warm days tempered by notably cool nights that help preserve acidity. In the glass, a wine of this age is typically a deeper gold, with aromas that can move from fresh fruit into baked apple, pear, honey, toasted almond, and subtle spice, with oak influence reading more as nutty and buttery than overtly vanilla. Chateau St. Jean’s Chardonnay approach in recent vintages includes fermentation and aging in oak and extended lees contact to build texture, which helps explain why older bottles often feel rounder and more layered on the palate. Expect a softer acid profile than a young Chardonnay, a creamy midpalate, and lingering savory notes, with bottle variation being normal for a wine that has been aging for decades. As a point of context, Alexander Valley was officially established as an American Viticultural Area on October 24, 1984, the same year as this vintage.

About the grape

Chardonnay comes from Burgundy, and modern DNA research links it to a natural crossing of Pinot and Gouais blanc, which helped make it both adaptable in the vineyard and responsive to site and cellar choices. In Sonoma, Chateau St. Jean became known early for vineyard designated Chardonnay, starting with Belle Terre in 1975, and that Alexander Valley site sits near the Russian River on gently rolling ground with well drained gravelly and sandy loam soils. Plantings at Belle Terre date to the early 1970s and include Old Wente and Wente Greenfield selections, the classic California Chardonnay material that many producers relied on for structure and consistency. For a 1984 Alexander Valley Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay, those clones and that warm days, cool nights valley pattern typically meant fruit that could be fully barrel fermented and aged on the lees, with malolactic fermentation used as part of the traditional California approach for the era.

Quick facts

• 🏷️ Your 1984 Alexander Valley Chardonnay comes from a house that helped popularize Sonoma “vineyard designated” Chardonnay, Chateau St. Jean’s landmark Belle Terre Chardonnay debuted in 1975.
• 🗺️ The Belle Terre Chardonnay source vineyard sits on the Russian River in southern Alexander Valley, a geography twist that surprises many drinkers who assume Russian River and Alexander Valley never overlap.
• 👑 Chateau St. Jean was founded in October 1973 and named for a real Jean, Jean Sheffield Merzoian, the “saintly” family member the founders joked could keep them in line.
• 🏰 The winery’s iconic “chateau” on the property dates to the 1920s, so a 1984 bottle is tied to a genuine historic estate house, not a marketing invention.
• 🦄 1984 was a notably hot Northern California vintage and many whites from that year faded long ago, so any well stored 1984 Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay showing life today is a small time capsule and a bit of a unicorn.

Palate profile

Producer

Chateau St. Jean is based on a Valley of the Moon estate anchored by a French inspired chateau built in the 1920s for the Goff family. The modern winery was founded in October 1973 by Ken Sheffield and brothers Bob and Ed Merzoian, who set out to champion vineyard designated Sonoma wines. The first wines were made with inaugural vintages in 1974, and the purpose built winery in Kenwood was completed in 1980 to support small lot winemaking. Its flagship red blend Cinq Cepages brought national attention when the 1996 vintage was named Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator, and the property entered a new chapter when Foley Family Wines acquired the winery in 2021 and resumed full production after major facility upgrades in 2022.