2013 Foxglove Chardonnay Central Coast is sold out.

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2013 Foxglove Chardonnay Central Coast 750 ml

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  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

Robert Parker’s Tweet: “Super Value in central coast #Chardonnay from Varner boys!”

When identifying California’s top Chardonnay producers, from a stylistic and structural perspective, it’s best to evaluate them in keeping with the vagaries of the AVAs from which their wines are drawn.

In Sonoma County’s Knights Valley, Peter Michael Winery is at the top of our list, turning out big, broad, lemon curd Chardonnays, drawn largely from the Old Wente clone, planted on poor Goldridge soils. On the cool Sonoma Coast, former Peter Michael winemaker Vanessa Wong crafts crisp, mineral, and complex Chardonnays that give great white Burgundies a run for their money.

In Russian River, the nod goes to Steve Kistler — with David Ramey and Luc Morlet close behind. Kistler Chardonnays tend to be a bit backwards on release, slowly peeling away fine saline layers before coming into their own three or four years after bottling. Ramey’s Chardonnays are more classically built. While equally high-toned and vibrant, David’s single-vineyard wines off Platt and Hyde vineyards marry richness and tension, drinking beautifully out of the gate even as they age gracefully for a decade.

In Santa Cruz and on the Central Coast, the top Chardonnay-makers are Brian Talley and Jim and Bob Varner, standing head and shoulders above the rest. Rich, fleshy, and pristine, Talley’s Rincon and Rosemary’s Chardonnays are consistent knockouts, and have garnered ten 95- to 99-point reviews from Robert Parker, Jr. As to the Varner brothers’ Chardonnays, these are the raciest of the gang, combining New World opulence and apple-honey concentration with firm mineral backbone. No stranger to Robert Parker’s scoreboard, the Varners earned a whopping nineteen 95+ reviews from The Wine Advocate in a half-dozen vintages, NONE more remarkable than 2013.

In the sensational 2013 growing season — the second consecutive drought year on the Central Coast, one in which barely a drop of rain fell between June and the end of August — the Varner brothers turned out the most sophisticated, wonderfully mineral Foxglove Chardonnay to date, earning a Robert Parker tweet heard ‘round the wine world that cut our 300-case allocation in HALF!

“Super value in central coast #Chardonnay from Varner boys”

Just $14.99 — for as long as 150 cases last. Shipping included on 6. NOT to be missed.