2016 Grgich Hills Estate Chardonnay Estate Grown Napa Valley 750 ml

The name Chateau Montelena has been gilded ever since their 1973 Chardonnay took home the top prize at the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting. Mike Grgich—who had emigrated from Croatia and worked under André Tchelistcheff and Robert Mondavi—was the winemaker behind that Chardonnay. Needless to say, its performance made him a star. 

Mike’s own Grgich Hills winery has, for four decades, been producing the kind of Chardonnay that lives up to the expectations he set in Paris. Case in point is the 2016 Grgich Hills Estate Grown Chardonnay, which Decanter called “stunningly complex” and “beautifully balanced” at the World Wine Awards, where it earned 97 points—a score that no Chardonnay in the field of nearly 1,000 was able to top. 

The 2016 Grgich Hills is a classic expression of what put California Chardonnay on the map. Showing an inviting and seductive golden core with a hint of brass on the rim, the wine is generous from the get-go, with an explosion of white flowers and a citrus layer with a toasty, nutty tone. A rich and rounded mouthfeel with an absolutely vibrating energy that shows through its crisp and long finish. There are few California wines with this kind of royal lineage, and even fewer that can be had for a price like this. For lovers of Chardonnay and white wines, Grgich Hills is a cellar must.

Not many wines cause waves of anticipation when we see them on our tasting table—but Grgich Hills Chardonnay does. The reason is simple: There’s no winemaker more directly related to California’s single most famous Chardonnay of all time, the bottling that won the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting.  

The next year, Mike Grgich founded Grgich Hills, and the first vintage of his eponymous Chardonnay beat 221 others in a blind tasting known as “The Great Chicago Chardonnay Showdown.” From then on Mike was the “King of Chardonnay,” and his wine was one of the marquee Chardonnays of California. It went on to be served by two U.S. Presidents (both parties!), Queen Elizabeth II, and the President of France—no shock, since Mike’s the man who topped France’s best.

Mike’s father once told him that knowledge was more important than property, and that ethos lives in the succession at Grgich Hills. While many famous winemakers have gone big with their brands over the years, Grgich has remained family-run. In fact, the winemaker now is Mike’s nephew, Ivo Jeramaz, who was inspired by his uncle’s success to come to the USA from Croatia in the 1980s. Mike has passed his magic touch to Ivo, who now crafts the Grgich wines. From Montelena, through Mike, to Grgich Hills today—the connection to California’s greatest Chardonnay glory couldn’t get any more direct than that.  

Ivo is fanatical about making Chardonnays that reflect the estate’s organically farmed vineyards in Carneros and American Canyon in the cool southern end of Napa Valley. The wine ferments on native yeast, which he feels is the best way to get a true expression of their unique sites. He ages the wine for ten months in 75% new French oak, but it undergoes no malolactic fermentation, which is why Grgich has a distinct acidic verve that recalls the energy of great white Burgundy.

This is a truly iconic Chardonnay, in the tradition of the California bottling that beat the Burgundies. Every white wine lover’s cellar should have a few.