96pts Jeb Dunnuck

A deeper straw color, the 2021 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard is ripe with delicate incense, ripe white peach, and orange blossom. Medium to full-bodied, it’s long on the palate, with great balance. It’s slightly more forward and exuberant in the glass and has great length along with a terrific finish. I love this wine. 

96pts James Suckling

The Ritchie Vineyard would be a grand cru if Sonoma was Burgundy, and Ramey offers one of the best renditions of it. Gorgeous, vibrant fruit melds with a pronounced minerality. There are stony and spicy nuances on a great structure of racy acidity. No hurry to drink this wine; it will gain even more complexity and layers with time.

95pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2021 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard, which can be bold and hedonistic in warmer vintages, is more reminiscent of Chablis. It has transparent aromas of lemon curd, chalk and crème fraîche. The light-bodied palate features concentrated citrus and stone fruit tempered by chalky character. It has a softly creamy texture foiled by a firm spine of acidity and boasts a very long, detailed finish. It will be long lived in the cellar. 455 cases were made. 

94pts Vinous

The 2021 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard is fabulous. A Chardonnay of stature and textural finesse, the 2021 is super-expressive right out of the gate. There's gorgeous oiliness and nuance here. Ritchie is one of the great sites in the Russian River Valley. Vibrant mineral notes play off the wine's notable richness. This is a fine example.

94pts Wine Spectator

There’s good energy to the lemon sherbet, pear, lime zest and pineapple flavors at the core of this sleek, vibrant white, offering notes of white flowers, dried ginger and vetiver, plus a mouthwatering thread of saline and lemongrass on the long, expansive finish. Drink now through 2033.

Tasting Notes

Aromatically the wine is extremely fruit-forward with guava, white peaches, butter, and lemon curd. On the palate, the wine is full of ripe fruits, notes of fine baking spices, and piles of minerality. 

Vineyard Notes

Ritchie Vineyard is widely spaced, as was the fashion in the early ‘70s. These
old, gnarly trunked vines produce small clusters with distinct “hen and chick”
berry sizes.

'We’ve worked with the same block of Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay since 2002. The floral character of the small portion of Musqué lends an aromatic lift while the Old Wente provides structure and acidity' - David Ramey