AMERICAN WINE

It's not often that tank-fermented Chardonnay delivers the depth and texture of Teresa's Unoaked Chardonnay. This rich and diverse wine has bright fruit aromas and a nicely balanced mouth feel. The complex bouquet includes key lime, lemon peel, peaches and apricots. The crisp tartness complements the wine's natural viscosity and creates balance and elegance. This wine is extremely versatile with food. It's textured and plush enough to compliment rich seafood like lobster, crab and scallops, but also has a crisp acidity and fruit flavors that can pair nicely with more diverse flavors like grilled pork tenderloin with a fresh apple reduction sauce.

The Wild Bee! The Wild Bee represents a shift in Big Table Farm's Chardonnay program. This wine takes the place of their Willamette Valley Chardonnay – only in name, label and price! Same vineyard sources, same winemaking, same barrels. The Wild Bee is a combination of all 6 sites of Chardonnay that they work with and is a fantastic representation of Willamette Valley Chardonnay for 2019.

At first blush this wine's aromatics offer up lemon custard and stone fruit. This is a clean bright expression of Chardonnay. It has a persistant white floral note that leads into warm toast and hazelnut – this all shows off the perfectly developed golden grapes that finish like a bite of perfectly ripe pear. The acid is fine and complex without any hard edges giving this wine tension to help you appreciate it's subtleties.

More Chablis-like rather than a California chardonnay. Lots of lemon lime, citrus and minerality. Crisp and clean to the finish, and pairs nicely with shasimi, ceviches, agua chile and an assortment of other fresh cuisine.

Owners John and Michelle (JaM) Truchard have created quite a following in a relatively short amount of time. With the name of their wine label being called JaM, they employed the help of winemaker Rob Lloyd to produce a rich, jammy style of Cabernet. Well, that wine was a huge hit, and since Rob knew a thing or two about making Chardonnays, it only made sense that this white wine should be called "Butter". As the name implies, this is a rich, buttery style of Chardonnay laced with aromas of baked lemons and mandarin oranges mingle with a hint of spice and smoke. The palate begins with crisp pineapple, bright citrus and ripe melon while a soft creaminess rounds out the finish. This Chardonnay is ready for immediate enjoyment and is suited to a wide variety of foods including white fish, smoked salmon and creamy pasta dishes.

A blend of approximately 80% Chardonnay and 20% Vermentino.

Since 1989 the Parker family-owned and -operated winery has produced wines of superior quality and value. This handcrafted wine represents the best of what Santa Barbara County Chardonnay has to offer. Flavors of ripe apple, butter, lemon, and melon are perfectly balanced with light toasty oak on the palate.

Fontanella Family's 2019 Chardonnay delivers the heft and beautiful fruit that consistently make this the Chardonnay for red wine-lovers! Meyer Lemon zest and pineapple on the nose invite you into a round mouthfeel packed with honeysuckle, baked apples and cinnamon, toasted marshmallow, and lemon meringue – all balanced with the trademark Mt. Veeder minerality and crisp acidity that cleanse and refresh your palate after each sip.

Strewn with silky ripe stone fruit and river rock minerality, Lewis Cellars' 2019 Napa Chardonnay is complex and compelling. Opening with green pear and yellow peach, creamy flan flavors float across the palate with flecks of gardenia and gun metal, carrying through with drive and detail to a sumptuous finish.

Rob Lloyd (who was formerly on the winemaking team at Rombauer) has produced an unabashed California Chardonnay. The grapes come from two Sangiacomo Vineyard sites, Home Ranch and Green Acres in the Carneros region. Picked at their peak of ripeness, the grapes are gently pressed, settled, and moved to barrels to be cold fermented. The room is kept at a very low temperature keeping the wine from fermenting too rapidly and thus losing its aromatics. The wine slowly undergoes primary and secondary fermentation for nime months before being racked off its primary lees and bottled.

Truchard Vineyard lies in the heart of Carneros, prized for its rolling hills, sun exposure and cool, breezy conditions that allow long, even ripening. Nickel and Nickel makes wine from eight select sections of this 270-acre vineyard, composed of volcanic ash and rock with a southwestern exposure. The growing season tends to be long in this cooler area, allowing for fully mature fruit at harvest.

The 2019 Truchard Chardonnay is a beautiful marriage of youthful vibrance and refined elegance. Gorgeous aromas of tropical fruits, citrus and wet stone leap from the glass with the very first swirl. The same tropical and citrus notes follow on the palate, with pear, peach blossoms, and a touch of spice to round out the flavor profile. This wine is weighty, with an oily-textured component that is inherent to the vineyard. A harmonious mix of acidity and volume, this wine is full and fresh.

Aged for 10 months in French oak barrels (of which 51% were new), an alluring perfume of mango and fresh garnedia with whispers of candied citrus rind and spices open onto a round, full palate layered with fresh citrus and stone fruit flavors. Bright acidity provides structure and a mouthwatering juiciness and the finish has a captivating briny minerality that will make it a delight with fish, oysters, and seafood.

Rombauer's Proprietor Selection is a reserve Chardonnay produced only in exceptional vintages, and is a blend of their best barrels from the finest lots. This wine comes from elite vineyards in the Carneros region owned by the Rombauer family and select growers including the Sangiacomo family, long-term grower partners who have farmed this land for three generations.

The grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed while the fruit was still cool. The juice was pumped to tank to cold-settle overnight before it was racked to barrel for primary and malolactic fermentations. The lees were stirred every two weeks to give the wine rich flavors and a creamy texture. Each barrel was hand-selected for this wine.

Pale straw yellow with a golden hue, this wine's color will deepen with age. An exceptionally concentrated aroma of candied peach, Meyer lemon, brioche and spice leap from the glass. The palate has layers of peach, nectarine and lemon curd which blend seamlessly with the spice, brioche and creamy texture. The acid binds the wine together, providing the balance to hold the brooding fruit sweetness in check. The finish continues to build endlessly.

ROBERT PARKER'S WINE ADVOCATE 95 POINTS - "The 2019 Chardonnay Proprietor Selection needs a fair bit of swirling to reveal glorious notes of warm apricots, fresh grapefruit, lemon tart and fresh Bosc pears with touches of beeswax, allspice, candied ginger and toasted almond. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has tightly wound citrus and stone fruit layers with a satiny texture and fantastic freshness, finishing with loads of spice and mineral sparks. This is one beautifully crafted Napa Valley Chardonnay!"

The fruit for this wine comes from vineyards in the Carneros region owned by the Rombauer family and select growers including the Sangiacomo family, long-term grower partners who have farmed this land for three generations. The grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed while the fruit was still cool. The juice was pumped to tank to cold-settle overnight before it was racked to barrel for primary and malolactic fermentation. The lees were stirred every two weeks to give the wine rich flavors and a creamy texture.

Enticing aromas of vanilla, peach and mango are layered with apricots, creme brulee, butter and a slight minerality. Those scents are echoed as flavors on the creamy, rich palate, along with peach, pie crust and baking spices. The long, smooth finish is marked by mouthwatering acidity.

Fruit aromas of Golden Delicious apple, Bosc pear and white peach are accented with oak spice, a hint of vanilla, toasted nuts, a light floral note and a touch of butterscotch. This wine has the signature Sonoma-Cutrer balance between elegance and richness for a medium-bodied, mouth-filling wine. The creamy richness is balanced with a bright acidity and highlighted with flavors of apple, pear and lemon zest. There is a long finish highlighted with notes of toasted almonds and barrel spice.

This Chardonnay is a story of balance, a delicious intersection of richness and minerality that benefits from the classical standard of viticulture, care of the land, and winemaking that is as relevant today as it was in 1893 when Stags' Leap Winery celebrated its first vintage.

Aligote, the other notable white grape of Burgundy, is experiencing a resurgence in its home as well as in the new world. Traditionally blended with Chardonnay or made into the classic Kir cocktail, this variety was exiled in 1937 to the appellation of Bouzeron where it was quietly enjoyed by the local Burgundians. In the Willamette Valley, Aligote embraces everything we love about acid, tension, and minerality, so we began searching for a great Aligoté vineyard.

The grapes are lightly crushed prior to pressing. The fermentation takes place with native yeast and is aged on its lees in two 350 liter and one 500 liter barrels for ten months. Walter Scott's Aligote holds onto 30% of its malic acid, bringing a brilliant tension to the wine.

The juxtaposition of fruit and earth on the nose is alluring. Lime leaf and lemon balm jump out of the glass on top of layers of citrus blossoms. The flinty aromatics are unmistakable and the texture of wet limestone gives this wine breadth and weight. Crunchy white peach, lime zest, and orange sherbet flavors drive the wine, while a rich, Mirabelle plum skin note completes the finish.

Walter Scott believes in Willamette Valley Chardonnay. This classic varietal has an important place in this region and at Walter Scott, not in the replication of other inspirational regions, but in its own distinctive style, with its own compelling voice. Chardonnay is a grape which is able to translate Willamette Valley's unique geology in the same way Pinot Noir can. Through thoughtful farming and cellar practices, Walter Scott strives to allow Chardonnay to reach its powerful Willamette Valley potential.

Their approach to Chardonnay pays attention to texture and structure, translating site and vintage. The La Combe Verte is fermented with 100% ambient yeast and full malolactic conversion in large barrels with very little batonnage. The wine is lightly fined and filtered prior to bottling to brighten aromatics and give a polished finish. The result is an illuminating style of chardonnay, showcasing density and precision. The palate spotlights evolving layers of textures which follow the aromatic notes of lemon blossoms, with the finish offering a subtle mineral and saline character.