2020 Rombauer Vineyards Chardonnay Carneros 750 ml

The late 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.

He was a friend to us dating back to our early days in the business, and we’re honored to share his eponymous winery's famous Carneros Chardonnay. It’s an iconic Napa cuvée that’s landed on the Wine Spectator Top 100 list multiple times, with the magazine’s critics noting: “Rombauer defines the California Chardonnay style that so many adore.”

The 2020 is a pale-gold beauty suffused with an exotic-fruit richness of mango and lime, rounded with a creamy, vanilla-tinged butterscotch finish—yet all that opulence is kept in check by bracing Carneros freshness and zesty citrus aromatics.

It’s easy to take the dominance of California Chardonnay today for granted, but much of the grape’s fantastic success was due to individuals like Rombauer, who bought his Napa property in 1972. His brand’s popularity was built on the back of this Carneros Chardonnay. With its fine layers of oak and spice, a palate packed with green apples, pear, and ripe banana, and a creamy texture, it was impossible not to love, and it set the standard for Chardonnay in Napa and beyond.

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 Chardonnay and some from select growers, like the third-generation Sangiacomos, and all handpicked. Whole-cluster pressing preserves the delicate aromatics, while stirring the less every two weeks lends this bottle its mouth-filling lusciousness.