This is the quality you expect for a wine by the glass at a high-end restaurant. It has intensity, ripe fruit, oak, alcohol all seamlessly woven together. Flavors are baked apple, pear, white stone fruit and brown baking spices. Aromas, flavors, finish: This wine is all about style.

Smooth sip, but charming from the far West. We are in the Sonoma Coast, California and La Crema winery established at the end of the ’70's, reminds also with this name a particular style of production. Style that we can find in the Chardonnay 2014 (distributed by Philarmonica, €22 in Wine Stores) with golden Californian color and creamy and toasted notes, that reveals the variety of origin, ending with a vibrant and fruity mouth.

Wine & Food pairing recommendation ...For the brave who like to feel the heat, anything other than the aforementioned should work. I would recommend in all cases to stick to younger, riper styles of wines, and avoid those with too much complexity as the spices might dominate any subtlety present in the wine. The white version of a spice booster would be a New World oaky Chardonnay loaded with exotic fruit, vanilla, pineapple and a slightly higher alcohol content of around 13.5% ABV, such has the 2014 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay from La Crema Vineyard in California, which is ripe with sweet spices and white peach.

The Best Drinks to Pair With Barbecue For lighter fare like grilled chicken and seafood, an oaky Chardonnay is a delightful choice. The woodsy notes in the wine will pick up the charred, caramelized character in your meal, with a hint of acid to balance things out.

This is a chardonnay-lover’s chardonnay. Gorgeous notes of stone fruit, honeysuckle and butterscotch. Seamless texture. Decidedly decadent, but maintains its balance. Lovely.

This is an appealing chardonnay for white wine lovers across the board. A great melding of flavors – citrus and stone fruit. Notes of lemon, apricot and spice. Great balance. Crisp, yet lush. A smart buy.

Floral aroma, hint of oak, packed with flavors of ripe peaches and candy, spicy, rich, full-bodied and lush, long, fruity finish.

Bright and racy and crisp, with aromas and flavors of lemons and apples.

This chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast appellation - the heart of La Crema's business despite successful forays into other regions - profited from a long, cool and predictable growing season, which delivered small berries with firm acidity and highly concentrated aromas and flavors. The fruit was hand-harvested, whole-cluster pressed, then fermented in French oak.

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.