La Crema makes wines with good value - delicious and inexpensive for what you get. This chardonnay is very aromatic and loaded with juicy apple flavors and hints of spice and vanilla.

Think ripe white peaches, green apples and melons and citrus: The 2012 Chardonnay from the cool climes of Monterey has layers of flavor — infused with oak and braced by firm acidity. The smoke and spice off the barrels ripple through the aromas. It’s a full-bodied wine — alcohol is almost 14 percent. It’s like an essence of Chardonnay – intense and concentrated, a meal in itself. And yes, pair it with the proverbial chicken, veal, pork and seafood but you will likely find yourself studying this golden nectar more than the food. It’s a restaurant wine you can pour at home. The vintage is hailed by winemakers as one of the best in this new century.

A tropical chardonnay that's a steal for the quality. Floral, with notes of pineapple, herbs and spice. Well-integrated. Nice length. Well done.

A gorgeous chardonnay with a winning combination of stone fruit and bright acidity. There's also honeysuckle and butterscotch in the mix. Complex and absolutely lovely.

2014 La Crema Chardonnay, Russian River Valley: crisp and lively, with intense aromas and flavors of apples and peaches, long finish.

This is a very delicious and smooth pinot noir with great complexity and finish. Licorice and cola aromas with supple and sweet blackberry flavors. We also like the winery's 2011 Monterey pinot noir for $23 - a good value.

2012 La Crema Chardonnay, Arroyo Seco, Monterey: rich aromas and flavors of ripe mangos and peaches, smooth and creamy.

The La Crema Sonoma Coast 2012 Chardonnay, $23, is an essence of ripe pear, green apple, lemon drop and orange zest — all delicately infused with smoky, toasty oak.

The entry-level chardonnay shows lemon oil and yellow apple along with a dollop of butterscotch on the nose. Dense, though not ponderous, with flavors of apple, lemon curd and vanilla custard/yogurt plus hints of pineapple and mango, it's also rich and creamy. Fresh, concentrated and layered, it's supple and entertaining with a sweet spot on midpalate that makes a lengthy and clean impact on the finish that has a hint of wood spice at the very end.

Sonoma Coast: aromas and flavors of ripe apples, pears and lemons, spicy finish; $23.

This widely available chardonnay shows the magic of a cooler growing region. Apple and pear nose and flavors with a nice deft touch of creamy oak frame this beautifully proportioned and balanced wine.

La Crema is restaurant wine at your very own home table. Stylish, dry, sophisticated. Swirl and inhale the essence of honeydew melon, pineapple, green apple, lime and honeysuckle. In the mouth, you immediately pick up the brown cooking spice and smoke off the barrels — the puckery tart fruit is laced with good oak. Flavors are white peach, tart apple and sweet pear, pineapple and Ruby Red grapefruit. It finishes with a tropical flourish and minerality. Wine like this comes from a cool region, so you can thank the breezes and fog off the ocean that bathe the benchlands of Monterey. It’s 100 percent barrel-fermented and goes through 100 percent malolactic fermentation to enhance the fullness of the flavors and mouthfeel.

But I especially appreciate discretion in the California style, when bells and whistles are less horn blasts, more, well, toots. See that in the pretty 2011 La Crema from Monterey ($20).

A tropical chardonnay with a rich texture. Floral, with notes of pineapple, vanilla and spice. Lingering finish. A steal for the price.

2011 La Crema Chardonnay, Russian River Valley: rich and creamy, with flavors of ripe golden apples and spice.

Pear and peach flavors dominate this oak-tinged chardonnay from one of the best regions for this grape variety. Hints of butterscotch and vanilla are appealing.

Creamy and dreamy chardonnays shouldn't be left out of the Valentine's Day picture. Both of these wines have a sense of sweetness that comes from picking the grapes very ripe in a cool climate region; in the winery, that sense is heightened by fermenting and aging the wine in toasted oak barrels. La Crema, also sourced from a cooler-climate region, shows lemon oil and yellow apple along with a dollop of butterscotch on the nose. Dense, though not ponderous, with flavors of apple, lemon curd and vanilla custard/yogurt plus hints of pineapple and mango, it's also very rich and creamy. Fresh, concentrated and layered, it's supple and entertaining with a sweet spot on midpalate that makes a lengthy impact on the finish.

La Crema can be counted on to produce under-valued chardonnay and pinot noir. This Monterey version has classic tropical fruit notes with a good dose of butterscotch and spice for those of you who like the influences of oak.

Beat the heat with summer whites. The La Crema is dry and crisp but nicely textured...

Lots of butter and vanilla in this one, but it's well structured and easily quaffed. The grapes come from cool-climate vineyards, offering good minerality. My score, 8.9.

The Los Carneros version steps it up with about a quarter new French oak barrels in the mix. Plenty of stone fruit like peach and nectarine on the nose and palate with a little thread of vanilla and spice that doesn't draw attention to itself. The flavors fill the mouth well in a leaner (but not meaner) style. Pinpoint acidity helps keep all the flavors in check and the balance is impeccable.

Limited to, as the name suggests, only nine of the best barrels in the winery (that's 225 cases), this chardonnay is full-blown and the antithesis of the Los Carneros. It pops its aromatics right out of the glass with rich creamery butter and buttered popcorn layers over lemon citrus and a little pineapple. Rich and full-bodied, it leads with green apple, pear and stone fruit on the palate as well as baked apple pie spice and vanilla. All the flavors are quite well delineated, showing good texture on midpalate and good length on the finish as the butter and spice hits a high note with the stone fruit.

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