The 2020 Chardonnay Estate Monte Bello Vineyard opens with streaks of matchstick and dried hay over a core of white peach and acacia, and as it spends time in the glass it blossoms to reveal alluring spicy and herbal undertones. The light-bodied palate is refreshing and gently creamy, with restrained, flint-streaked fruit and a long, floral finish. It's drinking well but could use another 2-3 years in bottle, or a few hours in the decanter.

The 2018 Chardonnay Estate Monte Bello Vineyard is a powerhouse on the nose, bursting with baked apples, salted almonds, beeswax, hay and loads of spicy accents. The palate is both silky and pure, concentrated and refreshing, finishing very long with loads of lift and flavor. 2,500 cases produced.

This is the “second” wine of the Monte Bello Chardonnay. It aged 14 months in 10% new oak (both French and American oak were used). The 2017 Chardonnay Estate Monte Bello Vineyard has a minerally nose with crushed shell and saline plus toast, spring blossoms, white peaches, hay and nutty accents. Medium-bodied, it has a pure core of stone fruits with earthy nuances, a great line of minerality, juicy freshness and a long, nuanced finish.

The 2016 Chardonnay Monte Bello aged 18 months in 86% American and 14% French oak, using one-year-old to five-year-old barrels. It's open and giving on the nose with aromas of lemon pith, saline, crushed shell, toasted almonds, honey toast, quince and white peaches plus dried hay and floral nuances. It's medium-bodied and uber minerally in the mouth, fleshing out fan-like to pure stone fruits, lifted by seamless freshness and finishing very long and floral-tinged.

The 2015 Chardonnay Monte Bello is a rich, powerful vintage, offering up aromas of yellow orchard fruit, preserved lemon and subtle notions of frangipane and spice. On the palate, it's full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with almost chewy levels of extract and considerable breadth, concluding with a stony, mineral finish but seemingly structured more around extract and richness than around acidity this year. This evokes the kind of equilibrium found in the better 2015 white Burgundies, and while it's in a different stylistic register from the 2014 or 2016, it's a compelling wine that may well surprise with some bottle age. This particular Monte Bello is a selection from a parcel planted with heritage selections on the Rousten Ranch at 1,900 feet, so it's somewhat different from the Clone 4 Chardonnay that dominated vintages 1985 onward. I suspect that accounts for its profile as much as the small crop and the drought vintage, and it certainly helps explain why it checks in at a mere 13.5% alcohol.