$42.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles or more

Been a while since we’ve had ZD Chard in the house and I’d almost forgotten what a distinctive, unique and fun California Chardonnay this is.  In fact, this 2023 Chard marks the fifty-fifth harvest for this groundbreaking Napa Valley winery!  Back when I first started drinking it, back in the early 1980s, it was exclusively produced from ZD’s up-valley estate vineyards along the Silverado Trail near Saint Helena and then, from much more Chardonnay-friendly vineyards the deLeuze family developed in Los Carneros.  These days it’s a carefully constructed assemblage from not only organically-farmed vineyards in the Napa and Sonoma County parts of Carneros but also coastal Monterey County.  But even if the sources have changed, the ZD style remains the same. Fermented very cool in wood, it never undergoes malolactic fermentation to keep its acids and is subsequently aged in American rather than French oak creating a very distinctive profile that remains fresh and lively even while pumping out a ton of rich lemon crème brulee, vanilla and spice flavors.  Always lavishly rich on the palate, it’s the wine’s native acidity that frames its aromatics so well and it makes it one of California’s benchmark wines to enjoy glass after glass, year after year.  A glass of ZD Chard is like rediscovering an old friend…