2017 Bradbury Wines Char Char Chardonnay Russian River Valley 750 ml

Nine Months. Countless bottles. 246 glowing reviews. The Bradbury Char Char Chardonnay, a luminous white wine from top Russian River Valley sites, is changing the Wine Access charts forever, racking up the type of reviews we normally see for $75+ icons and European stalwarts… and never expect from a value Chardonnay. 

But Bradbury bucks the entire idea of “value Chardonnay,” because it utilizes the same 1-2 punch that’s made Napa cult estates and Bordeaux standouts: top terroir and impeccable winemaking. The stellar value price ($16.99!) is our favorite kind of added bonus. Today’s bottles represent the final cases from Bradbury’s cellars, so we suggest acting fast to secure your share.

Bradbury Wines began with devotion to Chardonnay above all else. Only when they had secured a contract for fruit from Debenedetti Vineyard, one of Russian River Valley’s elite sites, did they commit to winemaking. Crafting a Chardonnay of the highest caliber was the only option, so they brought in winemaker Ashley Herzberg, one of Sonoma’s budding stars. 

Pedigree like this never comes cheap, especially out of Russian River Valley, and until recently the 2017 Bradbury Chardonnay was priced at $48. Then came the call. This score is a case of being in the right place at the right time: The business partners who founded Bradbury over a love of Char-Char-Chardonnay are going their separate ways, and decided to move their inventory before starting fresh. So they called us, and when we picked up the phone, we never expected it would lead to the case-buy of the year. 

Today, we have their $48 Chardonnay reduced to an unimaginable $16.99, exclusively on Wine Access. Imagine a Burgundy-inspired Chardonnay: incredibly elegant, driven by balance and complexity, with Meyer lemon, golden apple, honeysuckle, and jasmine woven together with the perfect touch of oak spice. That’s the 2017 Bradbury Char Char Chardonnay—a wine whose name might conjure “value” but whose vineyard sources and $48 SRP are as legit as they come. 

To the Wine Access members who exclaimed, “Let’s have more like this” and “I’d buy two more cases if you had any more!” about this wine, we heard you loud and clear: Today we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve secured another—the final—allocation of Bradbury’s golden, classic California Chardonnay.

Herzberg serves as winemaker at several Sonoma County estates including Amista Vineyards and Bacigalupi, and has been featured in Wine Business Monthly and Sonoma County Magazine. Her style involves minimal intervention, trending toward elegance and balance above all else. The 2017 Char Char Chardonnay is perhaps her greatest wine yet—rich but never heavy, offering depth as well as clarity, a complex range of orchard and tropical fruit, and a kiss of new French oak that supports the concentration of fruit while allowing the wine to remain delicate.  

Now 65% off, the 2017 Bradbury has catapulted to the top of our list as the year’s best Chardonnay bargain. Lock it in while it’s still here.