2017 Knights Bridge Winery Pont de Chevalier Chardonnay Knights Valley 750 ml

Peter Michael Winery put the tiny Knights Valley appellation on the map with their 100-point, high-altitude Chardonnays, which Robert Parker ranked among his favorites of all time and described as “like Corton-Charlemagne on steroids.” But since the bean counters rarely give us an opportunity to drop $400 on Chardonnay at lunch, Peter Michael’s under-the-radar neighbor, Knights Bridge, has become our secret weapon.

With impressive concentration similar to Peter Michael’s famed Chardonnays, the 94-point 2017 Knights Bridge Pont de Chevalier already over-delivers at its regular $50 price—1/8th the cost of its prestigious neighbor. But, at our $39 price, this is a spectacular Chardonnay that commands attention all on its own.

A luminous golden straw hue practically glows before it sashays out of the glass with beautifully integrated aromas of ripe yellow apple and quince accented with baking spice, toast, clotted cream, and fresh flowers. Rich and creamy on entry, salted pineapple and Honeycrisp apple notes are lifted with the unmistakable Knights Valley’s minerality that’s woven throughout.

It’s not just Knights Bridge’s proximity to Peter Michael that accounts for that comparison. Wine Spectator Winemaker to Watch Douglas Danielak cut his teeth in Burgundy, studying winemaking at the Lycée Agricole et Viticole in Beaune, working with Premier and Grand Cru vineyards at Château de Chambolle-Musigny, and apprenticing under famed wine importer Becky Wasserman at Le Serbet.

There, his American clients included Pinot Noir and Chardonnay stars such as Helen Turley and David Ramey, who later became mentors upon his return to California, leaving palpable imprints on his Old-World-meets-New style.

When we called Douglas to ask how he was able to so clearly translate his Burgundian training into his 2017 Pont de Chevalier, he told us, “It starts with the idea that as the world's great Chardonnays elevate in prestige and price, they do not become heavier, but instead reveal the delicacy and distinction of the variety.”  

Which is why Douglas loves Knights Valley for his Chardonnay: “Knights Valley emphasizes the grape’s complexity and nuance without weight—the wines project a gracious expression of place while also asserting drive and energy.”

One of the last remote corners of Sonoma County, Knights Valley’s mere 2,000 vineyard acres are only accessible through twisted back-roads deep in the mountainous Mayacamas terrain between Calistoga and Alexander Valley. You can almost taste the wild mountain air in the wines from this region.

Knights Bridge Estate Vineyard especially benefits from its high perch overlooking the valley below, capturing cool Pacific gusts to ensure long hang time for the grapes. A combination of iron-rich and tufa soils provides the minerality that characterizes the 100-point Chardonnays just up the hill.

With only 206 cases made, Douglas’s approach in the cellar is one of non-intervention, emphasizing very gentle pressing and choosing oak “as one might choose the right frame for a work of art.” His aim is always varietal precision, which he believes is the backbone to true age-worthy Chardonnay like his 2017 Pont de Chevalier.

The satiny texture has a fantastic tension to counter this wine's layers of allspice, toasted oak, and savory clove. Finishing long and perfumed, this Chardonnay has all the finery of a great Burgundy with enough California sunshine to dial it up a notch.

“A lovely, singular expression,” as the Wine Advocate put it in its 94-point review, this wine is impossible not to drink now. But at this price, we’ll certainly be clearing cellar space next to our Peter Michael Chardonnays for enough of this Knights Bridge to enjoy for a decade to come.