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White
750ml
Bottle: $38.75 $40.79
12 bottles: $38.00
12 FREE
White
750ml
Bottle: $57.60
6 bottles: $56.45
Rated 91 - The 2014 Chardonnay Mountain Estate Vineyard is deep and powerful, with plenty of the phenolic intensity...
12 FREE
VM
91
White
750ml
Bottle: $38.98
12 bottles: $38.20
Rated 97 in 2016, 2014 not rated.
12 FREE
White
750ml
Bottle: $60.05
12 bottles: $58.85
Rated 94 - This is another stunner from Pellet Estate, from a high-elevation vineyard influenced by fog and wind. A...
12 FREE
WE
94
VM
92
White
750ml
Bottle: $28.46
12 bottles: $27.89
The nose of white flowers, lemon oil, crushed rocks, and honey is enticing. This wine has beautiful bright acidity...
12 FREE
Case only
Long-term Pre-Arrival
White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $46.08
Rated 89 - The 2014 Chardonnay (Santa Barbara County) is a super-polished appellation-level Chardonnay. Pear, white...
VM
89
WA
88

Chardonnay 2014 United States California

Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.

Of all the New World wine countries, perhaps the one which has demonstrated the most flair for producing high quality wines - using a combination of traditional and forward-thinking contemporary methods - has been the United States of America. For the past couple of centuries, the United States has set about transforming much of its suitable land into vast vineyards, capable of supporting a wide variety of world-class grape varietals which thrive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coastlines. Of course, we immediately think of sun-drenched California in regards to American wines, with its enormous vineyards responsible for the New World's finest examples of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines, but many other states have taken to viticulture in a big way, with impressive results. Oregon, Washington State and New York have all developed sophisticated and technologically advanced wine cultures of their own, and the output of U.S wineries is increasing each year as more and more people are converted to their produce.

California as a wine producing region has grown in size and importance considerably over the past couple of centuries, and today is the proud producer of more than ninety percent of the United States' wines. Indeed, if California was a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, with a vast range of vineyards covering almost half a million acres. The secret to California's success as a wine region has a lot to do with the high quality of its soils, and the fact that it has an extensive Pacific coastline which perfectly tempers the blazing sunshine it experiences all year round. The winds coming off the ocean cool the vines, and the natural valleys and mountainsides which make up most of the state's wine regions make for ideal areas in which to cultivate a variety of high quality grapes.