2015 Room Wines Chardonnay Napa Valley 750 ml

We look for every excuse to escape our offices and hit the wine trail, but if winemakers need an escape from their chilly cellars, we’re always happy to open our doors... It was one of those rare meetings that led to this missive: An offer on the outstanding, beautifully balanced Room Chardonnay, a dazzling creative endeavor from Napa’s ultimate power couple.

This time, the 100-point mavens in our midst were winemaker Andy Erickson and vineyard seer Annie Favia, whose paths we actively try to cross as often as possible, usually to no avail since this duo has a slew of world-class projects up and down the Napa Valley, including Favia and Dalla Valle.

We were thrilled to taste their current release lineup, but amidst the chart-topping Cabernets and mailing-list-only red blends the two craft from their prime outpost in Coombsville, the Room Chardonnay stole the show—a luminous gold beacon amidst the ruby reds.

This tiny-production 2015 ROOM Wines Napa Chardonnay can be summed up in one word: dazzling. It is the rarefied Napa Chardonnay that acts as a chameleon bearing the unmistakable ripeness of Napa, densely packed with tropical fruit and ripe apple flavors, balanced by refreshing acidity and a touch of buttery texture tinged with a crushed stone minerality. 

If this wine was going into annual rotation under their flagship Favia label, it would be a $60+ Chardonnay, which is exactly what Andy told us after we secured every last bottle.

Beyond the pointed reality that this is impossible-to-obtain elsewhere, the pricetag belies this Chardonnay’s brilliance: From a quality perspective, what business does a value Chardonnay have masquerading as a wine that should cost twice the price? Andy and Annie have created Room Wines with the sole purpose of pushing the envelope of their talents and creativity, testing themselves with new appellations and grapes, producing bespoke wines for their mailing list and top Napa restaurants like TORC (which happens to carry this Room Chardonnay…)

The grapes come off a Coombsville vineyard planted in the 1980s—adjacent to Andy and Annie’s Favia Estate—where vines have a level of age and presence that aid self-regulation, making for low-yield, beautifully concentrated grapes. The result is a golden Chardonnay that combines Napa’s perfectly-ripened grapes with the mouthwatering freshness and vivid acidity most often associated with its French counterparts—Room is a Chardonnay you can’t make just anywhere. 

Here, in one of the coldest climes in Napa, vines struggle to find nutrients in ashen volcanic soils while chilly breezes from the San Pablo Bay help grapes retain vivid acidity. “Just the nature of the appellation spurred us to want to make a very bright, fresh, crisp, non-malolactic Chardonnay that pairs really well with all kinds of food because of the natural acidity,” Annie told us.

Gentle whole-cluster pressing preserves delicacy while lees stirring enriches the mouthfeel. “It’s Chardonnay so it has a weightiness to it, but it’s a fresh style that’s got a real clarity from the cool climate.” 

At our price, you can afford to skip the grocery store Chardonnay for a week (or more) and instead relish one crafted with the same care and attention that its makers bring to every one of their 100-point scoring efforts.