2022 Bernardus Winery Chardonnay Monterey County 750 ml

When the 1980s Chardonnay craze swept through America, just about every winegrowing region in California jumped on the bandwagon. Everything Dean De Korth had learned in the cellars of Puligny and Meursault 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. He wasn’t simply looking at summer high temperatures, but studying how and when the fog blanketed the prized southeast-facing vineyards and where the soils were well-draining and mineral-rich.

At the sites De Korth selected, the early-morning fog that cloaked the vines gave way to blue skies and sunshine, and the vines delivered low yields of small berries. In other words, he’d found exactly what he wanted. Today, his Monterey County Chardonnay is annually one of the best values in California—a supple take on the grape that combines a hint of sea salt with rich fruit and a gentle gilding of caramel. 

De Korth 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 2022, 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. 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.