Tondré Wines
Passion in a Bottle
Tondré Wines
Passion in a Bottle
Anthony Craig, Tondré Winemaker
Anthony began his tenure as a winemaker for David Bruce Winery. Originally a Shakespearean actor from the English town of Newcastle, Anthony led the vineyard designate program at David Bruce working his way up to head winemaker.
Anthony uses oak as an interactive process with the grapes each year. He focuses on how the wine feels along with how it tastes. As a critic of over-oaking, he avoids unneeded oak tannins that reduce bright color hues, produce harsh tannins and unbalance the wine.
He has been producing award winning Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for Tondré since the beginning and is a most valued member of the team. He is committed to producing elegantly refined and luxuriously flavored wines that remain true to the terroir.
Tondré Grapefield fruit and Anthony’s winemaking skills are a great pairing. Tondré Wines consistently win Best of Class, Gold Medals, 90+ scores and even Best Red of Show in International, National and Local wine competitions.
Anthony lives in San Jose, CA with his famous musician wife, Elena Sharkova and their son Alexander.
Tondré 2021 Chardonnay
Fermenting Chardonnay in stainless steel tanks lets us precisely control the fermentation temperature. It is essential to ferment slowly in a cold (~ 58 -60F) environment to maintain the fruitiness of this delicate grape. Using Champagne yeast creates a creamy mid-palate and offers a subtle tasty character to the finish. A small portion was fermented in the barrel for added complexity. The minimal oak usage makes the pure, crisp Chardonnay fruit shine.
Tondré 2021 Pinot Noir
The 2021 vintage Pinot Noir offers a captivating display of luscious red and black cherry fruit, skillfully intermingled with a delightful blend of assorted spices that perfectly embodies the essence of Tondré Grapefield and the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA. The palate offers a velvety texture that exudes elegance. It’s acidity is balanced complementing the moderate tannins to perfection.
Tondré 2020 Chardonnay
The 2020 Vintage Chardonnay turned out to be a complicated year due to the wildfires in California. Although the smoke impacted the red grapes, it posed less of an issue for the whites. The reason being, they are not fermented on the skins the way Pinot Noir and other reds are. In years like these, great care is taken at this stage to prevent any smoke impact from affecting the juice. When the grapes are loaded into the press, they are pressed several times at a low pressure to extract every last ounce; a technique used by large wineries focused on volume rather than quality. Once pressed, our 2020 Vintage Chardonnay was entirely tank-fermented to show off the natural fruitiness. The resulting wine speaks for itself. It has the usual crisp apple notes with a hint of tropical fruit and the creaminess from the champagne yeast used during fermentation. This process helps to counter-balance the refreshing natural acidity.
Tondré 2019 Pinot Noir
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The 2019 vintage Tondrè offers up a wonderful array of red cherry fruit and spice. The earthy attributes of the Pommard clone with its dark fruits; black cherry and blackberries, underscore and anchor the brighter aromatics to create a complex nose. The palate is gloriously rich and elegant at the same time, leaving a long lasting impression of the spice and fruit on the finish.
Tondré 2019 Chardonnay
Our 2019 Vintage Chardonnay shows a tremendous depth of fruit highlighted by tropical notes and a hint of citrus and crisp green apple. It is a blend of tank-fermented wine (80%) and barrel-fermented wine (20%). The new oak portion of the fermented barrel wine is approximately 5% and adds a structured mid-palate layer which offers a subtle note of oak on the finish. The natural refreshing acidity of our grapes is maintained with the fermented barrel portion of the wine only going through ML. We use a champagne yeast for the tank-fermented portion that adds a wonderful creamy note to the palate and helps to balance the acidity.
Tondré 2018 Pinot Noir
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The 2018 vintage Tondrè offers up a wonderful array of red cherry fruit and spice. The earthy attributes of the Pommard clone with its dark fruits; black cherry and blackberries, underscore and anchor the brighter aromatics to create a complex nose. The palate is gloriously rich and elegant at the same time, leaving a long lasting impression of the spice and fruit on the finish.
Tondré 2018 Chardonnay
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The 2018 Vintage Tondrè Chardonnay shows a tremendous depth of fruit, highlighted by bright tropical notes with hints of citrus and apple. It is a blend of tank fermented (80%) and barrel fermented (20%) wine. The new oak component of the barrel fermented portion (Approx. 5%) adds a structured mid palate layer, and offers a subtle note of oak on the finish. Crisp, refreshing acidity is maintained with the barrel fermented portion of the wine only going through ML.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2016
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The 2016 Vintage Pinot Noir shows an array of red and black cherry fruit, assorted ripe berries, nutmeg, and that wonderful Santa Lucia Highlands AVA spiciness that resembles dried herbs, potpourri and earthy forest floor. The palate is soft and plush with balanced acidity and moderate tannin. The tight grained oak used in aging graces the finish with a subtle note of cinnamon.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2015
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The 2015 vintage yielded a much smaller crop than usual, so unfortunately there is much less wine, but, it is of such high quality that is typical of a low yield year. The Santa Lucia Highland spice is noticeable along with the immense depth of black cherry and red cherry fruit. The palate has a weight to it that adds to the structural balance of this wine and keeps it going all the way to the finish. There is a near perfect acid balance that helps the weightier palate maintain its Pinot elegance.
Tondré Chardonnay 2015
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This 2015 offering has opulent, bright grapefruit, crisp green apple, with hints of tropical fruit. Although the wine is predominately tank fermented, a small portion (5%) is barrel fermented to add a structured mid palate layer offering just the tiniest bit of oak on the finish. The tremendous fruit quality of the Tondré vineyard shines through on the palate, with hints of a champagne creaminess and toast note. It finishes with clean crisp acidity making it a perfect wine for those light summer seafood dishes.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2014
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This 2014 Pinot Noir offering from the Tondré Grapefield offers up a very showy display of bright bing cherry fruit intermingled with black cherries and loganberry. The long term aging in very tight grained Hungarian Oak allows the true pinot fruit to fully develop and shine out without the oak dominating. The palate has subtle oak spicy notes of cinnamon with hints of vanilla.
Tondré Chardonnay 2014
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The 2014 Tondré Chardonnay offers up aromatic tropical fruit blended with crisp green apples, which had been a consistent note from this vineyard. The fruit shines through on the palate, which is rich and supple yet still allows the natural acidity to show. As the wine glides across the palate, the fruit gives way to subtle shades of butter and oak, but not excessively so.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2013
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The interplay of oak spice, black cherry and red bing cherry fruit is a common characteristic of the Tondré Pinot, and holds true for the 2013 vintage. The now well known, typical aromas of earth and spice, reflective of the Santa Lucia Highlands, shines through, and makes for a wonderful and complex aromatic experience. The palate shows plush velvety tannins and racy spicy characters that mingle with the glorious cherry fruit all the way to the finish.
Tondré Chardonnay 2013
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The 2013 Tondré Chardonnay shows a splendid array of aromatic fruit; crisp green apples, D’Anjou pears, honeydew melon and even a slight hint of grapefruit. The palate has a creamy texture with balanced acidity, and the copious opulent fruits linger on the finish. This is a great wine for sipping by itself or pairing with your favorite seafood dish.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2012
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Typical Santa Lucia Highlands pinot spiciness mingled with forest floor, earthy tones and just a hint of tobacco. The true pinot black cherry fruit however, comes bursting through these secondary notes and dominates the nose and palate. Hints of red cherries and blackberries linger on the finish where they mingle delightfully with the balanced toasty, smokey oak flavors. The palate is full and juicy, with velvety tannins and just enough acidity to create an elegant mouthfeel from beginning to end.
Tondré Chardonnay 2012
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Tropical fruit, gala apples, and a hint of honeydew melon are dominant features of this wine. It is not aged in oak because we wish to allow the full expression of the beautiful fruity characters of this wonderful 2012 Tondré Chardonnay. The palate is clean and crisp with just enough toasty creaminess from the yeast contact. A touch of residual sugar rounds out the palate.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2011
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Once again we had yet another long cool growing season in 2011 which resulted in one of the most balanced and structured vintages. This 2011 offering shows an amazing depth of both red and black cherry fruit. The tight grain Hungarian Oak characters are very subtle and integrated with the wine, showing hints of vanilla and cinnamon. The palate is full, soft and round, with elegantly smooth soft tannins that feel like liquid velvet.
Tondré Chardonnay 2011
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This 2011 offering is very aromatic. It shows an amazing depth of tropical fruit layered with crisp apples and just a hint of pear. The palate shows crisp acidity which allows the beautiful aromatic fruit to be fully expressed, and finishes with just a hint of fresh spiciness.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2010
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Harvested after a very long, cool growing season…it was truly worth waiting for. Lucky enough to be harvested before most of the rains that hit the northern coastal vineyards, the long hang time in the vineyard gave us fruit of exceptional quality. The aromatics of this wine are stunning; glorious red and black cherries in abundance. Subtle hints of vanilla and cinnamon linger on the finish where they intermingle with the obvious pinot cherry fruit. This wine is well structured, balanced and certainly worthy of further bottle aging as any great vintage should be.
Tondré Chardonnay 2010
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This is the first offering of chardonnay from our vineyard! We are delighted to be able to share it with you. Tropical and stone fruits are dominant aromatic features, with just a hint of subtle oak to add to complexity. A beautiful mixture of apple, peaches, and pineapple are very apparent on the palate. A pleasant, crisp acid balance with a creamy, almost champagne like finish, make for a delightful refreshing mouth-feel.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2009
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2009 is probably one of the best vintages in the last 20 years! The 2009 from Tondré Grapefield is absolutely gorgeous. Loaded with true pinot noir black cherry fruit, aromas of tart red cherries and cola nut. Color in abundance hints at the velvety structure of this wine that will allow it to age for many years to come. The mouth feel is plush, with silky soft tannins and just the right balance of acidity. The black cherries shine through on the palate where they mingle with the obvious Santa Lucia highland spicy characteristics.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2008
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The Santa Lucia highlands’ appellation spiciness sits at the core of this 2008 offering of pinot noir from the Tondré Grapefield. It is loaded with tart red cherry and lush black cherry fruit that perfectly blends with toasty, almost smoked oak aromas and flavors. The tannins are silky smooth in this elegant, well-balanced wine. The fruity characteristics are drawn completely through to the finish. Yet again, this vineyard shows its remarkable pedigree from the best of the AVAs.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2007
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The 2007 vintage turned out to be a winemaker’s dream come true; we always wish for an extended cool growing season and this year we got it. In practical terms it simply means better balance, fruitier flavors and a mouth watering experience. The 2007 Tondré Pinot shows a tremendous depth of black cherry, tart red bing-cherry fruity flavors, and subtle hints of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Layered on top of all this is that wonderful Santa Lucia Highlands spicy-floral character that uniquely marks this premier pinot appellation.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2006
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It’s hard to imagine that things could get better after the 2005 vintage, but here is the 2006 and what a show-off it is. Underneath the spicy characters of the Santa Lucia Highlands lies copious amounts of black cherry fruit, layered with tart bing cherries and subtle integrated oak characters of vanilla and nutmeg. The fruity qualities follow through on the palate where they mingles with supple velvety tannins and balanced acidity.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2005
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Vintage 2005 was an extraordinary vintage for Pinot Noir in California. The long cool growing season gave us wines that are rich, fruity, spicy and well balanced. This particular offering from the Tondré Grapefield, has a remarkable fruity nose that keeps you coming back for more; tart red cherries, black cherries, hints for raspberries and blackberries can be found in abundance. Subtle oak tones support rather than dominate both the nose and the palate, lending to a very pleasant mid-palate mouthfeel. The Santa Lucia Highlands AVA comes shining through, showing its typical floral and spicy characteristics that set this appellation apart from all others.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2004
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The 2004 growing season was beset with wild temperature swings. As harvest began, a high pressure system set in resulting in higher than usual temps. This sparked a rapid rise in sugar and some concern about dehydration. Still, focusing on flavors, we decided to wait until the grapes were fully developed. We were rewarded with a well rounded wine loaded with bright red cherry fruit with the typical Santa Lucia Highlands appellation spice at its core. The 2004 has a medium to full body character. Although soft and supple mouth feel makes it a very drinkable wine now, it will, as always improve with age.
Tondré Pinot Noir 2003
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Tondré Grapefield, in the heart of the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, produces wines of immense depth of fruit and character; layers of aromatic bing cherries on top of black cherries is the typical feature. Add the spiciness that typifies this AVA, and age it in tight grain Hungarian Oak to add suppleness to the mid-Palate for 14 -17 months, then all that is superb about Pinot Noir explodes out of the glass.
“If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt.”
–Dean Martin
“If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt.”
–Dean Martin