My favorite. A fabulous, intensely flavored wine.

Bone dry, spicy. One of the best I've ever had from California.

A bit of oaky richness adds to the broad fruit in the nose.

A bit riper and richer than most of its peers in review here, the wine carves a complex web of smoky oak, sweet melons with a hint of peach and suggestion of kiwi fruit in the background. Full in body and slightly rounded and oily texture, it is a tasty and very satisfying wine whose best service would be alongside richer dishes such as grilled salmon napped in a lemon and ancho chile butter sauce.

Stonestreet Alexander Mountain Estate Sauvignon Blanc $18.99. The price may seem steep for a sauvignon blanc, but this is a classic example of "you get what you pay for". With the oppressive heat, we have taken the wise move of tasting cool, crisp white wines. Tasted against many sauvignon blancs from different continents - ranging from $8 wines from Chile to a $65 wine from the Loire Valley of France - this California wine held its own and beat most for flavors and value. The grapes come from the famous Upper Barn Vineyard, 1,600 feet above the valley floor. The cool mountain air allows for long ripening to maturity and it keeps the acidity bright. The wine has a very classic, and classy, sauvignon blanc profile. The nose is fresh and inviting. The flavors are of pear, melon, grapefruit, smoke and minerals with a bit of spice in the finish. Its dense and luscious texture allows the wine to go with event complex dishes and lighter meats - fish, veal and pork. Sophistication combines with delicious flavor to produce a wine worthy of any table - especially in warm weather.

Fairly rich in aroma with cream, slightly toasty oak tones nicely fit to roasted grain and ripe grapes notes, the nose of this full-bodied effort signals a big, round, oily textured wine in the mouth. All the depth and complexity one would expect shows up at entry and mid-palate…

…with its ripe lemon an fig fruit and pungent acid. Here, intense mountain fruit adds depth, weight and character.

Ripe and more than a little oaky in style, this full-bodied effort shows attractive dried straw and toasted oak tones in its light, melon-backed aromas. Round and fairly glyceriney in palatefeel, this wine is a bit milder in flavor than its heft might suggest and turns fairly brisk and even a bit stiff in its clean and medium-length flavors.

Altitude gives intense, balanced flavors, herbal, citric notes. 2½ stars.

Sauvignon Blanc ideal in the summer heat As consumer friendly as those wines are, I found more complexity and flavor interest as prices escalated: ...2015 Galerie "Naissance" Napa Valley lychee, stone fruit, melon; ...and 2015 Stonestreet Alexander Valley complex, grassy.

Top 100 Wines of 2017 Fermentation and aging in a mix of stainless steel and oak gives this wine a mouth-filling texture and complexity. It's refreshing and lively, with Meyer lemon, green apple and pear fruit accented by barrel spice.

Sauvignon Blanc for Labor Day Fermentation and aging in a mix of stainless steel and oak gives this wine a mouth-filling texture and complexity. Yet it remains refreshing and lively, with crisp Meyer lemon and pear fruit accented by cinnamon and nutmeg spice.

Using grapes grown at a higher elevation in Alexander Valley, this excellent sauvignon blanc has herbal and lemon bouquet followed by grapefruit and lemon flavors with balanced acidity.

A fleshy sauvignon blanc with tangy flavors. Notes of melon, pear and a hint of jalapeño. Nice texture. Lingering finish.

This is a rather pricey sauvignon blanc, but it's also more complex than most. It has a very exotic bouquet with passion fruit, lychee and grapefruit followed by grapefruit and melon flavors. Nice mineral thread and balanced acidity.

Stonestreet shows how richly complex mountain-grown fruit can be. This is a singular place to taste the truth as it applies to cabernet and chardonnay, and can be an interesting destination for sauvignon blanc as well. The 2008 is an inaugural vintage, grown at about 850 feet elevation and made with a roundness of texture and deep structure. Very little of it exists, so try it if you can, under the lovely umbrage of Black Mountain.

Stonestreet Estate Vineyards manages over 5,000 acres of vines in the Mayacamas Range, high above the Alexander Valley in northern Sonoma County. They focus on cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, but also create impressive Bordeaux blends including the 2013 Terrace Ridge Semillon /Sauvignon Blanc that Bekah from Hartford raved about. A traditional white Bordeaux blend that sits well with my palate, the semillon adds roundness to the crisp sauvignon blanc.

This Bordeaux-style blend is a tantalizing spin on sauvignon blanc. Using mountain-grown grapes, it has a range of aromas and flavors. Fig, mango and lemongrass are just a few.

Because it is a bit out of fashion, top-grade California Chardonnay is under priced. Sonoma has the edge on Napa here.

Buttery and almondy, really very sweet. Ripe and full and really good, balance after sweet ripe fruit. Well made.

If the 1998 is anywhere near as tasty as the 1997 (93,$24), this should be on your list.

Ranked 17: Stonestreet's Chardonnays are seductive, both in flavor and price.

One of the most exciting early fall wine releases is this extrodinarily complex chardonnay from a small, but well-funded, California winery. In a blind tasting, you might think this is a very expensive white Burgundy. It has the many layers of fruit flavor you look for in a California wine: pear, lemon, melon and fig. What grabs your attention, however, is the magnificient bouquet of the oak and yeast lees combined with the fruit. Aromas of toast, spice fig and brulee are seductive. Yet the wine is in no way awkward or overdone. It comes together as an impressively elegant package that is delicious now and will live on for several years.

Forward and forceful in its winemaking induced notes of toasty oak, roasted grains and supporting fruit, the ever dry aromas find a parallel in rich, fleshy, full-bodied palatal impressions….

Rich and loaded with winemaking complexities on top of its evident fruit, this one is memorable for its high toast and loads of leesey tones. Fairly full-bodied and a bit alcoholic, this big, toasty wine has oak and roasted grain flavors galore. It is rounded at entry and carries a very respectable center of fruit yet is not at all a fruity version of Chardonnay. Nicely developed, it will serve as an appealing offering with foods like roast chicken.