2020 Bernardus Winery Chardonnay Monterey County 750 ml

When Bernardus winemaker Dean De Korth, a California native, returned from Burgundy armed with a Montrachet résumé that included stints with Comtes Lafon, Pierre Morey and Olivier Leflaive, he knew what he was looking for.

Everything De Korth had learned in the cellars of Puligny and Meursault about Chardonnay told him that the variety was far more capricious than advertised, so he turned his attention to the fog-shrouded coast 100 miles south of San Francisco.

With a keen eye on the work being done up north by the likes of Kistler and Ramey, De Korth began studying Monterey’s coastal weather patterns—not simply looking at summer high temperatures, but how and when the fog blanketed the prized southeast-facing vineyards, where the soils were well-draining and mineral-rich.

Thick early-morning fog cloaked the sites he selected, then gave way to blue skies and sunshine a little later, and the vines delivered low yields of small berries. In other words, he had exactly what he wanted.

He hasn’t had to tinker much with the Monterey County Chardonnay formula over the years—it’s stood fast as one of the Central Coast’s most quintessential expressions. In 2020, he used hand-harvested grapes from vineyards in the Arroyo Seco and Santa Lucia Highlands AVAs, fermenting three-quarters of the juice in oak barrels and the remainder in stainless steel, the latter of which adds bright fruit to the lushness of the barrel-fermented wine.

Regular lees-stirring ensures a beautifully creamy texture and decadent mouthfeel, and the 23% of the barrels that are new provide notes of spice and vanilla to the palate. The result is another classic in De Korth’s line of hits.