A chardonnay-lover's chardonnay with lovely notes of apple, pear and crème brulee. Lush texture. Lingering finish.

Full-bodied and rich, with aromas and flavors of ripe peaches and tropical fruit.

Delicious expression of Sonoma County fruit with soft mouthfeel and palate richness. It has tropical fruit and stone fruit flavors.

This Sonoma County producer does everything with class, including chardonnay. Using grapes from Alexander Valley, this savory chardonnay has a broad palate and good balance. Citrus and peach-pear flavors dominate with a nice mineral thread to give it distinction.

This beauty is dry and infused with spicy oak, bold fruit of Granny Smith apple, pear and pineapple, laced with exotic brown spices and held together with bracing acidity. It is 100 percent fermented in fine-grained French oak, and alcohol is 14.4 percent. Talk about body! Yes, it’s bold and flavorful. This classic Sonoma winery has been in business since 1977.

One of our favorite chardonnays, this Sonoma County beaut is very expressive with pear and hazelnut aromas and luscious, ripe pineapple and citrus flavors. A good dose of oak and caramel notes keep it interesting.

2011 Journey Chardonnay, Sonoma County: quite crisp, with complex green apple, pear and mineral aromas and flavors and nutty finish.

The 2010 Chardonnay is very much in the barrel-fermented California style - complex and rich in aromas and flavors of ripe fruit, toasty oak and butterscotch. On the nose one finds citrus, honeysuckle, tropical fruits and buttery vanilla. The palate yields complex flavors of mineral, pineapple and caramel with moderate tannins that invite pairing with richer foods to balance.

This notable Sonoma winery, purchased in 2000, was one of Jess Jackson's earlier trophy buys. (It was valued at $45 million at the time.) Chilean-born Marcia Monahan, the head winemaker of Matanzas Creek since 2010, has produced a clean, citrus-inflected Chardonnay that's easy and pleasurable to drink.

You get a lot of body and complexity in this chardonnay for the price. Assertive and broad aromas ranging from honeysuckle to papaya. Creamy mouthfeel with good acidity and pineapple flavors and a dash of oak.

There are many California chardonnay producers who fancy that they've made a wine worth $30. Most are wrong. Many are hardly drinkable. But this rich white wine is the real deal - a perfect balance of fruit and oak that almost restores my faith in this category. The flavors are no surprise - apple, pear, vanilla, lemon toast - but they come with layers of complexity. This may be a bit of a splurge, but it would hold its own with wines twice the price.

Boasts balanced oak and a hint of botrytised fruit, and it can star with chicken or pork in a creamy mustard sauce.

Happy Pinot Noir Day! Toasting This Morning on KXAS/NBC DFW Maggy Hawk Rose tames that hearty, robust character for a wine with ruby red grapefruit, tangerine and watermelon.

Another pinot followed, the 2014 Maggy Hawk Unforgettable. A contrast to the Conifer, this Anderson Valley red is very fruit forward. A strawberry/cherry nose, the wine is full-bodied and tannic. I would give this a couple of years to see what develops.

Uncorked: Spire Collection a portfolio of all stars From California’s Anderson Valley AVA, the Maggie Hawk Graceful Lady Pinot Noir 2014 walked the fine line between bold and balanced. With delicate strawberry on the nose, its flavors of tart cherry popped on a medium-bodied Pinot with fresh acidity. The Maggy Hawk lineup from winemaker Elizabeth Grant-Douglas continued its impressive run. Its single vineyard wines are dramatic and unique interpretations of Pinot Noir.

Perfect Pair: Ribs and Maggy Hawk Pinot Noir This wine is delicious! The delicate and floral 2014 Jolie opens with light aromas of cranberry and rose petals before deepening into a more opulent nose of anise and red plum. This is a well-structured wine, with finely knit tannins on the palate and flavors of pie cherries, blueberries, and a finish with hints of smoke and allspice. A classic Pinot Noir in style, it beautifully illustrates the elegance of the Pinot Noir grape.

Another wine I loved that we tasted was the Maggy Hawk Stormin’ Pinot Noir. This is made with the 667 clone and is not made annually, only when the team feels that the grapes are high quality enough to produce this single block wine. This was lovely, a bit heavier (as expected) than the Oregon Zena Crown Pinot Noir, yet extremely smooth and silky. At a $66 retail this is quite an incredible wine.

Another Anderson Valley Pinot - one of a trio from the Maggy Hawk property - but altogether different than the Champs de Reves. It's a rich, dark and structured Pinot with savory notes of earth and dark fruit, best paired with substantial fare.

Moderate reddish-purple hue in the glass. Exotic and intriguing nose featuring aromas of black cherries, dark berries, Moroccan spices and a hint of coffee broadening over time to even deeper autumnal notes. Beautifully complex array of dark red Pinot fruits robed in mild dusty tannins, ever-expanding in the mouth, and finishing with amazing persistence and length. The fruit really sings in this seamless and classy wine. Still great the next day from a previously opened and re-corked bottle.

Moderate reddish-purple color in the glass. Beguiling aromas of brandied cherries, rose hips, tea, violets and seasoned oak. Delicious black raspberry and cherry sappy flavors on a medium weight frame complimented by hints of exotic spice and fruit leather. The most intense, deeply fruited and structured wine of the three, more opaque than see-through lingerie. The aromatic peacock tail on the finish is notable for its length. Even better the following day from a previously opened and re-corked bottle. A very special wine.