2017 Alexana Terroir Series Chardonnay Willamette Valley 750 ml

A wine like Alexana’s Chardonnay is the reason we spend years cultivating relationships throughout the wine world, knowing that someday—even if it’s a decade down the road—we’ll get a call with an exclusive deal to pass along to our members.

Out of the hundreds of Oregon Chardonnays that Wine Enthusiast tastes every year, only a few merit their prestigious Editors' Choice designation. It’s bestowed on wines that the magazine’s tasting team endorses for over-delivering on price, like this 93-point 2017 Alexana Terroir Series Chardonnay… and we've knocked $5 off per bottle.  

So when we got a call from Dylan, an old friend and the current Vice President of Sales at the winery, offering us an exclusive on the wine, we were more than intrigued. Typically only found in restaurants and a perennial glass pour at the SoHo Grand in New York, where rooms go for $400+ per night and a see-and-be-seen crowd populates the bar, we were very interested in giving our members access to a great deal on one of the best names in Willamette Valley Chard! 

Straddling the line between a richer, West Coast style and crisper white Burgundy, it was obvious from the moment we popped the bottle that its destiny was to be a member favorite. Aromas of Meyer lemon brighten up a delicious-smelling note of tarte tatin, while exotic spices dance over the top. It’s hard to stop smelling the wine and taste, but we were glad we did, as rich flavors of pear and pastry cream duel with a bright minerality, lingering on the palate and inspiring sip after sip.

It’s quintessential Willamette Valley Chardonnay—a region cooler than most of California, but with the soils and temperament to provide more richness than the Côte d'Or. Wine Enthusiast is driving the (deserved) hype-train, highlighting that “Oregon’s vintners can emulate the best of both worlds, while producing distinctive, place-specific wines.... typically at prices well below the iconic Chardonnays of California and Burgundy”—like the modest $30 tariff today’s bottling commands.

Based on their winemaking decisions and what’s in the bottle, it’d be easy to assume this was a $60 wine. Sourced entirely from dry-farmed vineyards—which produce smaller, more flavorful berries at the cost of minuscule yields—the grapes are triple-sorted by hand, so that only the most perfect clusters enter the press. Fermentation is done with native yeasts for impressive complexity and they age the wine in a modest 21% new oak from the finest coopers—like Damy and Billon—whose names appear in the finest cellars in Burgundy.

Alexana works with three different sub-regions of the Willamette Valley to blend a perfectly balanced bottle. Their home vineyard in the Dundee Hills, with its breezy days and red Jory soils, contributes orchard fruit and floral accents, while a vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton brings power and richness to the table with a warmer climate and marine sedimentary soils. Finally, they blend in wine from the cool Chehalem Mountains to provide brightness and lift, adding up to a complete package that blew us away.

We’ve been big believers in Oregon Chardonnay, and wines like this are why. With a perfect blend of fruit, spice, and vibrancy, it’s worth all the time and networking we’ve put into acquiring it for you.