Wine & Spirits - October 2020 - 51

YEAR'S BEST CALIFORNIA CHARDONNAYS
acter. Time in oak has lent the wine some
tannins, adding to its creamy feel, finishing
on an almond-paste note. Chill it for grilled
salmon with a citrus salsa. -J.G. (675 cases) §
521012

90 | Panthera

$45

90 | Russian River
Vineyards

$56

2017 Russian River Valley Chardonnay ^
Ripened to golden richness, this is a funky
chardonnay with the dark tones of a lobstershell broth. It lasts on apricot and melon flavors, along with enough brisk acidity to carry
the weight of the wine. For a seafood stew.
-J.G. (4,250 cases) §
520999
2018 Russian River Valley Bacigalupi
Vineyards Chardonnay ^ A crisp young chardonnay with light chamomile and ginger flavors, this needs six months to a year in bottle
to integrate its bitter oak into the pear-like
fruit. There's an undertow of refreshing acidity that keeps coming back to clean up the
end. -J.G. §
521000

90 | Tongue Dancer

$50

2017 Russian River Valley Bacigalupi
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ Distinctive in its yellow spice, tangy orange and dried-apricot flavors, this wine's fruit is framed by savory oak.
It's supple and warm with alcohol, a round
wine for grilled chicken with fruit chutney.
-J.G. (150 cases) §
521013

90 | V. Sattui

$48

2018 Russian River Valley Collina d'Oro
Chardonnay ^ Broad and cushioned by the
caramel sweetness of oak, this is a lush, well
integrated wine, with the wood influence
shading the flavors toward a fruity greenolive tone. For grilled vegetables drizzled
with grassy olive oil. -J.G. (494 cases) §
519282

90 | Williams Selyem

$65

2017 Russian River Valley Lewis MacGregor Estate Vineyard Chardonnay ^ This
vineyard on Eastside Road was predominantly planted to Wente clone chardonnay
when Williams Selyem purchased it in 2014.
While they replaced much of the chardonnay with pinot noir, what is left produced a
ripe and meaty white. It's a little confected
at first, but air brings out the stony mineral
savor while the bright, honeyed sweetness
moves toward beeswax. For a grilled salmon
steak. -J.G. (W&S 4/20) §

SONOMA COAST
521063

96 | Hirsch

$60

2018 Sonoma Coast Estate Chardonnay ^
This is among the best Hirsch chardonnays
we've tasted, a wine with an ornate, almost
baroque complexity woven out of fruit
grown on the sandstone ridge along the San
Andreas fault. It offers a completely different
kind of complexity and depth of flavor than
a great Burgundy-California coastal casual,
yet precise. If you were to travel to David
Hirsch's remote vineyard and feel the blast
of the Pacific winds against the ridge as you
stand alongside the vines he planted in 1994
on a steep, rocky slope facing directly toward
the sea, you might begin to sense the pure,
terroir-driven nature of this wine. Along with
fruit from those 2.5 acres, this wine includes
Hirsch's younger block of chardonnay, also
west-facing, 1.4 acres planted in 2002 on a
nearby sandstone hillside. The cool 2018 season produced a chardonnay that defies oxidation, still beautiful a week after it was first
opened, destined to thrive for decades. -J.G.
(610 cases) §
521057

94 | Alma Fria

$50

2017 Sonoma Coast Campbell Ranch
Chardonnay ^ Carroll Kemp makes this wine
from vines planted in 2001 in Annapolis,
at the northern reaches of the far Sonoma
coast. He ferments it spontaneously in barrels, one-quarter new, and the fruit is substantial enough to digest that oak, building
on its structure without losing its floral highlights or textural tension. Clean and fresh, as
fat and muscular as a scallop, this has a mineral acidity and an herbal undercurrent that
keeps its power restrained even as the clarity
of flavor lasts. -J.G. (100 cases) §
521091

94 | Cobb

$70

2018 Sonoma Coast JoAnn's Block Doc's
Ranch Chardonnay ^ Doc's Ranch is one of
the few vineyards near the Cobb family's
Coastlands Vineyard in Occidental; a remote
site, it's mostly surrounded by coastal redwood groves. While Coastlands faces toward
the ocean, Doc's Ranch is just southeast, on
the leeward side of the ridge. Ross Cobb
farms its nine acres of vines, including the
single acre of chardonnay he uses to make
this wine. In his 2018, the wine's purity and
clarity hold for days, suggesting this will age
with grace, though it would make a luscious
partner for shellfish right now. The coastal
influence shows in fruit flavors of white
peach and salted pear, green apple and
honey, a sustained chord of Pacific intensity.
-J.G. (225 cases) §
521068

94 | Radio-Coteau

$64

93 | Matthiasson

$55

93 | Radio-Coteau

$60

2018 Sonoma Coast Heintz Chardonnay ^
Charles Heintz grows chardonnay in the
coastal hills of Occidental, across the road
from Eric Sussman's home ranch for RadioCoteau. The vines, planted in 1982, grow in
Goldridge soils, and maybe it's the organic
farming that encourages the healthy balance of this wine. It starts off clean, fresh and
saline, then builds into a tart-apple sweetness
that brings the Pacific to your doorstep. It
was even more delicious four days after the
bottle was first opened, with a smoky crabroe savor to the wine that set up a craving for
a Shanghai-style banquet centered on fresh
crab. -J.G. (140 cases) §
521456
2017 Sonoma Coast Michael Mara Vineyard Chardonnay ^ Steve Matthiasson and his
wife, Jill, bootstrapped their winery through
their work in sustainable agriculture. Along
the way, they developed relationships with
growers at distinctive sites, like this one,
owned by Richard and Susan Idell. Here, at
the base of the mountains west of the town
of Sonoma, the vines grow in a rocky colluvial
slide. In 2017, those vines grew a fascinating
and complex chardonnay, rooted in scents
of wild thyme and high-toned white grapefruit. Nacho Monclus, the wine mind behind
Brooklyn's Camperdown Elm, said "it smells
like Forcada from Torres," a high-elevation
project exploring local, ancient varieties in
Penedès, or like godello, he suggested. "It's
beautiful until the very end, when the oak
takes over from the yellow plum and apricot. But otherwise, it's righteous wine." -J.G.
(207 cases) §
521067
2018 Sonoma Coast Wingtine Chardonnay ^ Wingtine is Eric Sussman's blend of the
chardonnay he planted in Harrison Grade
in 2014, with Charles Heintz's fruit from
across the road, where the vines were planted
in 1982. Both grow on Goldridge soil, both
sites under a strong influence of the Pacific,
which lends this wine the freshness of a sea
breeze. The young-vine fruit seems to add
luscious richness-a fresh cream note and
a sweet Vidalia onion rootiness that would
work especially well with the sweet flesh
of a scallop. Wingtine is as delicious as the
Heintz bottling (also recommended here),
though it is slightly less resistant to oxygen-
quibbling, perhaps, to say that the old-vine
Heintz wine wins out when both have been
open for days. -J.G. (260 cases) §
521058

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2020

Wine & Spirits - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2020