2018 Baldacci Family Vineyards Chardonnay Sorelle Carneros Napa Valley 750 ml

Napa Valley Chardonnay can be rich. It can be lean. It can be soft and nuanced. The region’s swatches of diverse terroir yield nearly limitless styles, but most connoisseurs will tell you the best examples of classic Napa Chards deliver fruit richness, spice complexity, and crisp acidity in excellent balance.

In other words, the 2018 Baldacci Sorelle.

It’s near-impossible to avoid seeing Sorelle on the wine lists at Napa’s popular restaurants—it boasts such food-friendly versatility, it’d be a crime to leave it off the list. Crafted by Michael Baldacci and Ricardo Herrera, an alum of Dominus and Screaming Eagle, it’s a tightrope balance of stone-fruit lushness and excellent acidity that sports weight and body, yet the vibrancy to compel sip after sip.

Baldacci, who has been producing estate-grown wines for over two decades, belongs in the conversation with names like Rombauer and Frank Family: estates that have sculpted the rich, complex style that now defines Napa Chardonnay.

The 2018 vintage smiled on the estate’s Honey B Vineyard, blessing the Chardonnay vines with ample sunlight and refreshing breezes off the San Pablo Bay. The temperate weather lasted well into the fall, allowing growers across the region to let their Chardonnay hang longer than usual, thereby developing deep complexity.

The Baldacci team made multiple passes during harvest to collect a range of acidity levels, then aged the wine on the lees, where it earned creaminess and texture and underwent malolactic fermentation. During this process, sharper malic acid converts into softer lactic acid, giving the wine a rounder mouthfeel while maintaining its energy.

This is about as classic as Napa Chardonnay gets, a stellar expression of the incredibly versatile grape.