2021 Lange Estate Chardonnay Three Hills Cuvee Willamette Valley 750 ml

In January of 2023, we spent a week in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Two things were universally true: Chardonnay was the first word out of every winemaker’s mouth—and the wines we tasted only confirmed their excitement.

One of the highlights of our trip was Jesse Lange’s MASTERFUL Three Hills Cuvée Chardonnay. Boasting a 95-point score, this is Wine Enthusiast’s top-rated Oregon Chardonnay of the 2021 vintage, and it shows why Oregon Chardonnay is destined to be one of the great wines of the world, as synonymous with the Willamette Valley as Nebbiolo is with Piedmont.

Jesse sources the grapes for this cool-climate Chardonnay from the same trio of hillside vineyards that supply the Three Hills Pinot Noir: Lange Estate, Yamhill, and Durant. The key to the wine is the extreme care he takes in assembling the blend. He told us, “We made this wine from 45 different lots—all extremely segregated by block, clone, and yeast. Then we put all these Lego pieces back together to craft the final blend. So the wine’s not made until the wine’s made.”

“It was hot in July, but we had an absolutely perfect end of the 2021 growing season,” Jesse raved. That allowed him to harvest each site at the exact right time, with the temperate fall weather preserving incredible vibrancy in the tiny berries, whose skins had thickened in the midsummer heat. “The vintage is flashy, extremely outgoing, but balanced,” Jesse told us. “I didn’t have to add any acidity. The wines are really well-balanced. I love the opulence but also the tension!”