Regular Price $55.00, The Chardonnay Master Speaks $44.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles or more

WLet’s face it. David Ramey knows a fair bit about making wine. From his earliest days establishing Matanzas Creek as the Sonoma County destination for Sauvignon Blanc and cementing Chalk Hill’s reputation as one of the country’s preeminent Chardonnay producers, to stints making big reds at both Dominus and Rudd Estate, David Ramey has established a track record of excellence as enviable as any winemaker’s in the country. And, after establishing Ramey Wine Cellars in 1996 with wife Carla, he’s managed to parlay those early relationships into sources for some of the best wine grapes in California. With names like Platt in Freestone, Ritchie Vineyard and Rochioli in the Russian River Valley and Hyde and Hudson in Los Carneros already mainstays of Ramey’s Chardonnay portfolio, he also makes several over-achieving blends featuring these vineyards and others like Martinelli and Dutton. There’s none better than his Russian River Valley Chardonnay. Comprised of fruit from David’s own estate vineyard as well as a who’s-who of other Russian River Valley superstar sites, it’s a masterpiece of understatement with a beautifully elegant, silky palate and a mélange of quince, pear, wintergreen, skinned nut and lemon crème brulee aromatics. David ferments naturally and keeps the new wood on this cuvee dialed back to around 10% so the barrel regimen adds a bit of texture and weight to the wine without any heavy wood tannins or vanilla. And while we hate touting a wine by telling you what it’s not, the Ramey Russian River Chardonnay is really a beautiful wine that we think offers up an extraordinary amount of pleasure for a very reasonable price. We know that last year’s 2022 version of this winewas the Wine Spectator’s number 10 ‘Wine of the Year’ but, in our opinion, we like the raciness and verve of this newly-released 2023 even more. Our advice is to get some before it gets reviewed and hard to get! Very highly recommended.