2018 Fog Crest Vineyard Chardonnay Laguna West 750 ml

Most winemakers would be lucky to have just one legendary mentor in their career.

Jérôme Chéry had TWO.

The Fog Crest winemaker learned the craft of Chardonnay at the side of not only John Kongsgaard—whose $900 The Judge is a collectible on par with Grand Cru Burgundy—but also Ted Lemon of Littorai, perhaps the greatest Chardonnay mind west of the Mayacamas. That training shows in Chéry’s 2018 Fog Crest Laguna West Chardonnay, which displays a bounty of fruit and a firm backbone, plus ripeness and tension delivered by a foggy, southeast-facing vineyard source across the street from Kistler’s Laguna Ridge.

Chéry has crafted wine in the Loire Valley, Provence, Languedoc, and Australia, but made his name in the United States while working with Kongsgaard at Luna, then with Lemon at Littorai, and finally as Director of Winemaking at Saintsbury in Los Carneros. He’s got incredible experience with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and an innate knowledge of how terroir translates into the glass. Fog Crest snapped him up in 2014, and they’ve been on an upward trajectory ever since.

Located north of Sebastopol in Sonoma County, Fog Crest Vineyard boasts an advantageous southeast exposure, which allows morning sun to counterbalance the famous fog that blankets the best vineyards of the AVA. An ancient sandstone ridge on which the vineyard lies allows the soils to drain effectively but provides few nutrients, leading vines to produce smaller, flavor-rich clusters of grapes. 

Now, five years after harvest, this Chardonnay is showing beautifully. Elegant across the palate, it’s cashmere-smooth, with creamy weight and firm acidity in equal measure—the Russian River’s luxe signature, without the luxe markup.