2014 Hollywood & Vine Chardonnay 2480 Napa Valley 750 ml

Mountain Chardonnay + 100-Point Winemaker = Home Run

If your predilection is for chiseled, high-elevation Chardonnay, this phenomenal effort from three-time 100-point winemaker Celia Welch has your name all over it. Welch has racked up a bevy of perfect and near-perfect scores from The Wine Advocate and a Food & Wine Winemaker of the Year award. Setting out to craft an intensely aromatic, cool-climate Chardonnay for Hollywood & Vine, Welch went to one of Napa’s best sites for mountain fruit: Antinori’s vineyard, 1,400 feet up on Atlas Peak. The result, thanks in part to the growing season’s incredible conditions, was a cracking home run. “Napa’s 2014 vintage is one of the best years in the last two decades,” gushed critic James Suckling. “I can say the 2014s are sensational. Go get some.” This is your chance to do just that: This terrifically complex, high-altitude Chardonnay from one of Napa’s most gifted winemakers is just $29.99 per bottle, only from Wine Access.

Welch knows the best sites like the back of her hand, so she knew Atlas Peak would thrive in 2014. The maverick grape-growing pioneer William Hill carved the rugged site into the mountain 1,400 feet up above Foss Valley, the terrain unforgiving, its volcanic soils riddled with boulders. The vineyards here yield exquisite purity due to the large diurnal temperature shifts over the summer months. Daytime highs creep into the 90s, while nighttime lows dip into the low 50s. The rugged volcanic slopes eke out just a couple tons per acre. Berry size is small, no larger than the tip of your little finger.

The grapes, the famous Weimer clone of Chardonnay, were harvested in the chilly post-dawn hours on September 18, whole-cluster pressed for purity, and barrel-fermented and aged in French oak. Lees were stirred biweekly, lending voluptuous texture and subtle creaminess. For lovers of vibrant Napa Chardonnay, this 2014 is a dream come true.