2016 Argot Mosaic Chardonnay Sonoma County 750 ml

Wine Spectator’s Winery to Watch

If you’re a fan of Patz & Hall, Ramey, and Rochioli, you’re going to want to jump to the “Buy” button. This 2016 Argot Mosaic Chardonnay out of Sonoma County comes from one of Wine Spectator’s October 2018 Wineries to Watch. Argot founder and winemaker Justin Harmon is a rising star who learned from the best from day one, including 100-point winemaker Russell Bevan.  

Harmon found a home in Bevan’s winemaking facility and access to the county’s prime growers. Sourced from cool-climate Sonoma County sites that run along Bennett Valley Road through select Sonoma Mountain AVA sites, the 2016 Mosaic shows juicy pear and peach, meyer lemon, beautiful baking spice, and “creamy texture and fantastic freshness” according to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. “Only a decade into his career, this is the early work of a star in the making. Just $29.99 per bottle, shipping included on 4.

After falling in love with wine as a consumer, how badly did Justin Harmon want to make wine? Badly enough that his first wine was from a concentrate kit that he vinified in his parents’ basement near Chicago. Badly enough that he then had flash-frozen grapes shipped out to the Midwest, where he thawed them out and made wine in a 35-gallon garbage can. Badly enough that he located a winery that needed help and flew all the way out to Sonoma County—for one day of work.

Fortunately for Harmon, the winemaker who accepted his help back in 2005 was Russell Bevan, the self-taught Cabernet master who has since racked up multiple 100-point wines, but at the time was working on his very first vintage. Bevan allowed Harmon to return for the 2006 harvest. But at the end of the season, when Harmon approached Bevan about working there the next year, Bevan has some advice for the young winemaker: Start your own label. With sourcing help from Bevan and the use of his new winemaking facility, Argot was born in 2007.

Once harvested, the grapes for this 2016 Argot Mosaic Chardonnay were whole-cluster pressed and barrel-fermented on the fine lees. After malolactic fermentation, it spent nine months in once-used French oak barrels.

The result, according to Wine Advocate, “simply sings of honeyed peaches,” and boasts “creamy texture and fantastic freshness.” Take a look at Wine Advocate’s assessment of Harmon’s wines this decade, and it’s clear that he is pointed in a Bevan-like direction. This is not just a chance for one of the most rich and nimble Sonoma Chardonnays we have had for under-$30, but a still-early shot at stocking bottles from a winemaker with a fantastic career ahead.