2015 CHARDONNAY, NIELSON VINEYARD Wente clone. The nose is a toasty and sticky lemon curd and honey. The palate is well-focused pure citrus, vanilla and spice backed by crisp acidity.

Oak dominates this 100% barrel-fermented Chardonnay, giving vanilla creme brulee and buttered toast notes, but they marry well with the pineapple and pear tart flavors of the fruit. The overall impression is flashy and elaborate. The grapes come from the highly regarded Nielson Vineyard.

Here's a very dry, steely and streamlined Chardonnay. Brims with mineral-infused pineapple tart, buttered toast and honey flavors. Feels wonderfully elegant and balanced, and will pair beautifully with barbecued salmon. The vineyard is located on the so-called Santa Maria bench, one of the region's prime growing areas.

Elegant, offering raspberry, pomegranate and cherry flavors that are well-structured. Notes of forest floor show midpalate, with an enveloping finish of spice and brick.

Red Elegant, offering raspberry, pomegranate and cherry flavors that are well-structured. Notes of forest floor show midpalate, with an enveloping finish of spice and brick.

The 2016 Pinot Noir 3 D—which hails from a sandy site in the Sta. Rita Hills planted in the late 1990s—is unusually powerful this year, opening in the glass with notes of cherry preserve, spice and potpourri. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, saline and supple, with impressive richness, amplitude and chewy extract despite being quite youthfully tight-knit. Give this a year or two in the cellar and then follow it for a decade.

The 2016 Pinot Noir 3D is one of the more marine-influenced wines in the lineup. Coming from a 10-acre site and a mix of clones, its light ruby color is followed by a beautifully complex bouquet of forest floor, shrimp broth, iodine, and loamy earth. It has a wonderful core of sweet red fruits, moderate acidity, and a layered, nuanced style. It's already drinking beautifully but it's also going to keep for a decade or more.

There’s an intriguingly earthy character to the nose of this bottling by Greg Brewer, with snapped sagebrush, dill, green olive and tart pluot aromas leaning into the herbal side of the grape. There’s great tension to the sip, which is fresh and flavorful with underripe fig and strawberry, orange rind and a hint of green peppercorn.

The nose is focused and dusty showing a leaner impression of cherry, orange zest and tobacco leaf. The palate is fresh and velvety with notes of tropical fruit and graphite showing in the long textured finish.

Notes of ripe orange, cedar and full, saturated black and red fruits. The palate is a lush sandalwood and supple black fruits accented by a gorgeous silky acidity.

Velvety black cherry aromas with subtle wet stone and florals. The palate entry is beautifully focused black fruit and spice. The core offers up brightly textured red berry with plenty of structure.

Lush red cherry and rosewater aromas meet with muddled sage, pepper dust and wild herbs on the nose of this excellent bottling, where rich fruit and herbal intrigue collide. Thyme, dried sage and even broadleaf parsley flavors show on the sip, set against a background of piquant cranberry and tart red currant, with bountiful energy that carries through the entire palate.

The nose offers up all of that Pommard weight and spice; Licorice, black cherry and violet. Gorgeous on the palate entry, seamless and lush velvet-like, red cherry, spice box and piquant cranberry.

This is Greg Brewer’s appellation blend rather than his single-vineyard expressions, but it’s still incredibly dynamic and delicious. A fresh and fruity strawberry-slushie aroma is met with notes of crushed slate and star anise-spiced cookies on the nose. The palate is bright in flavors of slightly tart cherries and ripe cranberries, but then come juniper and pine needle on the midpalate. Acidity pumps into the pomegranate and menthol finish.

The 2015 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir is an absolutely outstanding showing, which opens with a bouquet of cinnamon sticks, red cherry, guava puree and suggestions of pomegranate seed with orange rind accents. Lithe and deep, this shows very pretty flavors of red cherries, lavender, raspberry and pomegranate with blood orange accents. Smooth and seductive, this is absolutely outstanding wine which should conintue to show well for years to come.

A Spotlight on Santa Barbara Reminding me of the 2007, the sensational 2012 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills has terrific purity in its kirsch, black cherry, exotic spice and floral aromatics. Elegant, medium-bodied, supple and very silky on the palate, it’s one of the more forward wines in the lineup but has terrific balance.

A Spotlight on Santa Barbara In a different style, the 2010 is a darker, richer wine that gives up more black fruits, ground herbs, licorice, wood smoke, and tapenade. Rich, textured, nicely concentrated with notable freshness, drink it anytime over the coming decade. It's still a baby.

2016 CHARDONNAY, MACHADO Offers solid acidity in the nose with bright lemon, toast and butter notes. The palate entry is a bright toasted lemon and pear with notes of butter. Hold for a year to reveal all of its charms.

2016 CHARDONNAY, 3D The nose is a deeply saturated white peach, lemon curd and mineral with notes of toasted grains, chalk and whiffs of mint. The palate is a toasted lemon, crisp acidity and lengthy core of caramel with an expansive mouth-coating white stone fruit.

Lemon spray with hints of flint, light smoke, chalk and toasted oak show on the nose of this single-vineyard bottling by Greg Brewer. It’s really tightly wound on the sip, with expressive grapefruit pith and squeezed citrus as well as a distinctive Brie-rind note. A light flash of roasted marshmallow pops on the finish.

A beautiful nose of clean, precise citrus flesh, chalk and mineral dryness. The palate entry is fleshy and rich, round with less acidity in the core. It finishes with beautifully textured white currant, pear and brioche.

There is a strong pithy character to the nose of this wine, with aromas of Meyer lemon peel, grapefruit rind, Brie cheese wash, yogurt and wet rock. The palate is really tightly wound and also full of that tight pith character, with ethereal and wispy flavors of clean smoke, chalk and ash. The acidity is soft but penetrating.

A fresh, floral nose of jasmine with notes of mint and clove. The palate has a lush entry of waxy citrus with spicy pear and brioche in the core.

A little history and some worthy new finds Found two beautiful Chardonnays made in the older style of the '80s. Brewer-Clifton Santa Rita Hills 2015 was given a glowing review by Jeb Dunnuck, "seriously rich, unctuous beauty that offers notes of buttered citrus rind, candied lemons, honeycomb and hints of minerality. Deep, rich and thrillingly textured, it's certainly the smart value play." Tough to find this quality at $27/bottle or $323.40/case, 94 McD and worth every bit of the effort to get some.

A Spotlight on Santa Barbara The 2010 Chardonnay Sta. Rita Hills is in a great spot. Orchard fruits, hints of tropical fruits, buttered citrus, matchstick and mushroom characteristics give way to a textured, layered, beautifully pure white that has tons to love. Given the evolution of the previous vintages, this can safely be enjoyed anytime over the coming decade or more.