2019 Rombauer Vineyards Chardonnay Carneros 750 ml

Koerner Rombauer was one of the legends of the Napa wine trade—a larger-than-life figure famed for his generosity and charisma, and a man who simply knew great wine.

Koerner was a friend to us dating back to our early days in the business, and we were extremely honored to work with the Rombauer estate this month to share this famous Carneros Chardonnay—an iconic Napa cuvée that’s landed on the Wine Spectator Top 100 list multiple times, with the magazine’s critics noting that “Rombauer defines the California Chardonnay style that so many adore.”

From a vintage of extraordinary depth and concentration—thanks to one of the longest harvests on record at the estate—comes this pale-gold beauty, suffused with an exotic-fruit richness of mango and lime, rounded with creamy, vanilla-tinged butterscotch finish, yet with all that opulence kept in check by bracing Carneros freshness and zesty citrus aromatics.

Today, under the direction of KR Rombauer III and winemaker Richie Allen, this bottling is the best it’s ever been. The grapes are a mix of estate-grown grapes and some from select growers like the third-generation Sangiacomos, and all are hand-picked. Whole-cluster pressing preserves the delicate aromatics, while stirring of the less every two weeks lends this bottle its mouth-filling lusciousness.

Whenever we see a white-haired gent tooling around town in a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Coupe or 1988 Lamborghini Countach, for a second we think it might be Koerner. Until we meet again (fingers crossed) in the big winery in the sky, we’ll be toasting to him with a glass of this sumptuous, oak-kissed Carneros Chardonnay.