I’ve been drinking a lot more Chablis in the past couple years than I have in 30 years or so… attributable to a couple people I’ve been drinking a lot of wine with recently… and it’s caused me to look at California Chardonnay a bit differently. Most of you reading this understand the vagaries of palate-complacency and while I am NOT judging everything by a Chablis-standard, it DOES cause reflection–as our palates morph–on WHAT exactly makes CA Chard what it is. This is a prime example. Again: this is not to say I hold the Chablis-Standard against what all chard should be judged by, it’s more a *replacement* of austerity and angularity to the buttershcotch & ML standard most CA versions rise to. I drink a lot of Chablis’ with off-putting flavors and unpleasant dog-park, wet-boot nuances and California–especially RRV–will never see these things, despite an arguable derilection toward flatulence and buttery typicity.

What I’m tring to say is: Don’t throw the baby out with the bath-water. A Chardonnay like this exudes a naturally-evolving aura of richness Chablis under $200 will never see, and that is the beauty we must find in California Chardonnay. Thick and delicious, the oak and ML programme spot-on in deliriousness; A beauty of fruit laid down thick on the tongue NO ONE can argue with; Rich to excellent points while still managing acid and structure Burg-bro will scoff at, but true lovers of the grape will embrace. You can make Bordeaux-like Napa Cabs. You can have North Coast Rhones resplendent of St. Joseph and CdP. You can have Loire-style Sauv-Blanc in SBC. But nowhere does the divide become quite so extreme as the canyon between Chablis and America’s most-popular grape: Chardonnay. So quit trying. Just embace it.

Back to this wine: Thick yellow and rich, the fruit acidically-tropical, an angsty-tannin layered on all fronts. Bananas Foster and tinged vanilla ice-cream float along gripes of decadent bitter and apple-peel. But it’s California. It’s Russian River Valley. It always will be and it’s beautiful.

2020 MARITANA Chardonnay ‘Shop Block 1967’ Dutton Ranch Russian River Valley Sonoma 14.0

maritanavineyards.com/