Napa Valley. Broad, well-ripened and equally generous in both fruit and wonderfully creamy oak, this concentrated, full-bodied Chardonnay is not so singularly directed by winemaking as are so many wines of similar size and weight. Its deep and insistent impressions of ripe apples carry through to a lengthy finish and, if a little hot at the very end, the wine remains balanced despite its considerable body and should develop nicely with another couple of years in bottle.

Slightly leesy aromas of peach, papaya, spiced apple, lemon, lime and sage. Brisk and flavorful in the mouth, with tropical fruit and fresh herbal notes. Tactile and dense, with the musque clone and brisk acids giving the wine lovely lift. Finishes spicy and long, with little sign of the near-15% alcohol. In recent years, this has become one of the consistently best non-malolactic chardonnays of the North Coast.