.a berry-laden wine with good aromatics, a supple texture, medium body, and adequate acidity.

"Ripe, bright and lively, with grapey cherry, snappy raspberry and wild berry flavors. Finishes with lots of fruit, firm tannins and good length. Best now through 1998." (also appears in the June '98 issue)

There are 500 cases of the honeysuckle, jasmine, and citrus-scented and flavored 2001 Viognier. This light to medium-bodied, crisp, tangy white is dominated by its fruit.

Toasty oak and cinnamon aromas team up with lovely pear, apple, citrus and spice flavors. Fleshy-textured, with a moderate finish.

Complex, if on a small scale, with elegant, toasty oak wrapped around pear, fig and apple flavors that fan out nicely.

This leesy, spicy Chardonnay offers notes of ripe fruit,medium body, and a fine finish. Drink this well-made, Burgundian-styled 1999...

Intense, with rich and spicy pear, vanilla and earth notes, picking up touches of anise and cedary oak.

Bright yellow gold. Medium-bodied. Moderately extracted. Ripe tropical nose follows throughout on the palate with a glycerous mouthfeel. Attractive.

Good. Ripe and fruity, with an elegant core of pear, honey, spice and apple flavors that linger on the finish.

Very good. Ripe and fruity, with an elegant core of pear, honey, spice and apple flavors that linger on the finish.

The 1994 Sonoma Chardonnay is a smoky, tropical fruit-scented wine with soft, creamy-textured fruit, modest complexity, and an attractive, soft mouth-feel. It should be drunk over the next 12-18 months.

The ripe, rich, concentrated pear and butterscotch flavors stand up to it, adding dimension and complexity. Finishes with a combination of ripe fruit and vanilla-laced oak flavors. Drink now through 1996.

Full-throttle, toasty, buttery, honeyed, fruity Chardonnay with lovely purity and overall balance. Full-bodied.

Light gold color. On the nose, I get apricots, lemon curd, honeycomb, toasted oak, whipped butter. Creamy texture but refreshing acidity makes for a rich wine but it stays fresh. Bruised apple and apricot mix with whipped honey, cinnamon, nougat and floral perfume. Quite delicious for this style and price range. 87 points.

Light yellow color. Aromas of yellow pear, peaches and apples, mixed with notes of yellow flowers, honeycomb, white tea, whipped butter. Creamy and bold texture on the palate with medium acidity, and juicy fruits (bruised pear, baked apple) cinnamon notes, toasted almond, with white and yellow flowers and whipped butter. Rich and stylistically forward but well made. Aged eight months in 1/3 new French oak. 87 points.

The 2015 Chardonnay Russian River Valley is scented of apricots, guava and pineapple with touches of cedar, lightly browned toast and almonds. It delivers a good core of stone fruit and tropical flavors in the mouth with a lively backbone and appealing savory finish.

Attractive from the start, with a mix of green apple, pear, citrus and light oak flavors. Offers a medium-weight profile on the long, clean finish.

The 2015 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast has lemon curd, grapefruit, and peaches and cream notes with a medium body, lovely purity and plenty of freshness. A lively, modern and uncomplicated style, it is perfect for everyday drinking!

The lemon and blood orange flavors are smooth, supple and charming, ending with a kiss of butterscotch.

Shows a pithy citrus side to the green apple and tangerine notes. Clean and refreshing.

Inclining to ripeness without abandoning fruit and finding a note of creamy sweetness to its dominant theme of juicy red apples, this slightly fat and full-bodied Chardonnay, while in no imminent danger of drying out anytime soon, is a flavorful, easy-to-taste offering whose ready richness and wide-open, soft-edged style make a strong case for drinking before the bloom of youth has faded and worn off.

This wine shows wet cement, lime rinds, light honeysuckle and fragrant minerality on the nose. The texture is solidly grippy and intriguing once sipped, with flavors of yellow grapefruit pith and Gala apples in the midpalate, sliding into a lime-rind tang on the finish.

A buttery, oaky Californian Chardonnay that has balancing acidity and some apple notes. Full-bodied and smooth. Pair with roasted chicken.

This is an expansive, fuller-style of Chardonnay from windswept Carneros. Juicy in apple and Meyer lemon, it’s softly textured, with a pronounced richness in aroma, evocative of earthy oak and petrol. Mouthfilling and creamy, it finishes with a taste of crème caramel.

La Crema's 2011 Chardonnay Russian River Valley is a pretty wine with good up-front fruit and an accessible, inviting personality. Lemon, butter, and pastry all meld together in a juicy, expressive Chardonnay that should drink beautifully for the next few years. This is a textbook example of Russian River Chardonnay. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2016.