2018 Chardonnay Sierra Madre Vineyard

Aromas of toast meet with lemon peel and Mandarin pith on the very precise yet exuberant nose of this bottling. The fresh and lively palate sizzles with lime zest and grapefruit-skin flavors, riding a very tight frame into a slightly toasted finish. — Matt Kettmann

The 2018 Chardonnay Sierra Madre Vineyard comes from a great site outside of Santa Maria and spent 18 months in 45% new French oak barrels. It's a slightly more reductive, salty Chardonnay with a vivid bouquet of nectarines, white peach, crushed stone and white flowers. Beautiful on the palate, it’s tight and medium to full-bodied, with beautifully integrated acidity and a great finish. This is a wine that blossoms with time in the glass and has that rare mix of freshness and richness as well as length. It ranks with the finest Chardonnay in California and will keep for 4-6 years, if not longer. A relatively new estate in Santa Barbara County, Peake Ranch was created by John and Gill Wagner, who released their first wines in 2015. The estate lies on the eastern end of the Sta. Rita Hills, and they pull from both their Peake Ranch Estate Vineyard around the property as well as the John Sebastiano Vineyard, which John partially owns. The wines have been made by Paul Lato since 2015, yet starting in 2017, the winemaking has slowly moved over to the current winemaker Wynne Solomon. Wynne worked with Lato on both the 2017s and 2018s and has been fully in charge since 2019. These are incredible wines, and as I’ve written in the past, readers need to get on this estate’s bandwagon!

The 2018 Chardonnay Sierra Madre Vineyard is another wonderfully expressive inviting wine in this range. Ample and creamy in feel, the Sierra Madre shows the tropical profile that is often found in Chardonnays from Santa Maria. The marriage of depth and translucency here is positively striking. Tangerine oil, pineapple and floral accents linger on the close.