2011 Keller Estate Winery Chardonnay La Cruz Vineyard Sonoma Coast 750 ml

2011 Keller Estate Chardonnay “La Cruz” — “A luscious page out of a Meursault script”

Over the last seven years, we’ve ruffled quite a few feathers when writing about California Chardonnay. We traveled to Burgundy for the first time in the late 1970s, years before we ever trekked a vineyard on Sonoma Coast. Our Chardonnay palates were formed while knocking on cellar doors in Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet. We marveled at the beeswax, honeysuckle, and mineral intensity of white Burgundy — at a young age setting a high bar by which the rest of the world’s Chardonnay would be measured.

With the exception of a few outliers made by the likes of Steve Kistler, David Ramey, Luc Morlet and his brother Nicolas at Peter Michael — and a band of maverick winegrowers near the Petaluma Gap — California Chardonnay has never measured up.

Don’t be fooled by today’s modest price tag: Ana Keller’s tiny production of the 2011 Keller Chardonnay La Cruz Vineyard is one of the most compelling estate-grown Chardonnays on the coast. Drawn from the wind-chilled hillsides at the mouth of the Gap, where the very force of the gusts makes poplar trees bend, this chiseled Chardonnay is a Meursault look-alike — meriting a spot next to Ramey, Kistler, and Morlet. Here’s why.

Keller Estate has long been one of Sonoma’s most sought-after vineyards, attracting the likes of David Ramey, Ted Lemon (Littorai), and Flowers. For years, Ana Keller explained, her family was content to sell their fruit. But in the mid-2000s, the Kellers held on to the best blocks for themselves.

“Most AVAs are defined by mountains or valleys,” Ana explained over lunch at El Dorado Kitchen on the square in Sonoma. “But the proposed Petaluma Gap AVA is actually defined by the wind. Winds over 8mph cause the pores of the vines’ leaves to close up. When that happens, sugars are slower to develop. That’s what allows us to let our grapes hang so long without worrying about overripeness or high alcohols. In cool vintages like 2011, we wait well into October to harvest. The berries are small, and like in Burgundy, we get great ripeness without high alcohol. As to acidity,” Ana laughed, “that’s something no one worries about at the mouth of the Petaluma Wind Gap.”

It’s often said in Burgundy that difficult red wine vintages make for the greatest white wine harvests. The same is true at Keller Estate. From the coldest growing season on record, the 2011 Keller Estate Chardonnay La Cruz Vineyard is brilliant straw-gold in hue. Piercing aromas of ripe pear, white peach, honeysuckle, and beeswax. Rich, dense, broad, and polished, yet with Meursault-like restraint, the core features an exotic fruit mix of lemon tart, ripe pear, and pineapple. Despite the great opulence of this late-harvest vintage, acids are ultra-firm, arguing for a 5- to 10-year rest in a cool cellar.

$40 on release. Just $19 this morning for what is — dollar for dollar — the most compelling PERFECTLY aged estate-grown Chardonnay on the coast.