2021 Chev. Chardonnay Russian River Valley 750 ml

The 2021 Chev. Russian River Valley Chardonnay takes the winemaking style that made Michael Browne famous—full throttle, yet balanced and nuanced—and applies them to three of the Russian River’s top vineyard sites. It’s just the fourth vintage of this daring project, and it’s usually sold exclusively to his mailing list and select top restaurants across the US. 

This is the work of a master in one of Sonoma’s great vintages, and it achieves its success through the same combination that put Kosta Browne on the map: great vineyards, plus Michael Browne’s talent for winemaking.

The vineyards are impeccable. Ritchie Vineyard—made famous long ago as Aubert’s first single-vineyard Chard and still one of Sonoma’s most coveted wines—is the headliner. Michael sources his grapes from the most prized parcel in the vineyard: the old, 1961 Wente-clone plantings that produce berries of intense concentration and character. That site is joined by Bootlegger’s Hill, which was planted near the town of Occidental (by Michael himself) to Hyde-selection clonal material and gives plenty of vibrancy. The third outstanding source is Ellen’s Lane, a site I knew for many years as a Paul Hobbs single-vineyard bottling.

Michael takes those pristine grapes and ferments them in a precisely tuned mixture of vessels. He mostly uses once-filled and new French oak barrels, but supplements them with some concrete amphorae, older French oak barrels, and concrete eggs—which provide subtle oxidation while keeping oak flavors in check. The wine spends a full 15 months in élévage afterwards, coming together beautifully after the following harvest.