2017 Moone-Tsai Vineyards Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 750 ml

Don’t Blink: This First-Class Chardonnay Is Disappearing

The 2017 Moone-Tsai Chardonnay Sonoma Coast is a bright, expressive and elegant wine that impresses, full stop. It’s no small honor that Wine Access members have been given first dibs on this release, let alone at a price that beats even the winery’s. This is a fantastic chance to acquire a Philippe Melka-crafted wine for a relative song, so we encourage our fans of first-class California Chardonnay—Kistler, Kosta Browne, Littorai, et al—to be vigilant. And to be ready to crown a new California classic.

When we visited the Moone-Tsai property on Howell Mountain in early March, we paused our tasting to look west toward the Mayacamas Mountains, just as a gauzy marine layer was meandering up the valley floor. Even to wine professionals who have seen their share of Napa estates, it was a flat-out scene-stealer of a view.

Fortunately, the wine glittering in our Burgundy glasses, the 2017 Moone-Tsai Chardonnay Sonoma Coast, is a wine that refuses to be upstaged—not by a view, and certainly not by any other California Chardonnay. It is a new classic, crafted by 100-point winemaker Philippe Melka, sourced from Sonoma’s famous Charles Heintz Vineyard. Moone-Tsai is featured regularly at America’s restaurant Mecca, The French Laundry, because it delivers everything a top-flight Chardonnay should: a lively golden color, a nose of Meyer lemon, jasmine, and mandarin blossoms, and a refreshing dose of limestone across a long, seductive finish.

Moone-Tsai’s secret to quality is no secret at all: They don’t compromise on sourcing, and don’t compromise on winemaking talent. Period.

The driving force behind Moone-Tsai is Philippe Melka, the 100-point winemaker named by Robert Parker as one of the top nine consulting winemakers in the world. And while Melka is perhaps best known for his sterling red wine resumé (which includes stints at Dominus, Hundred Acre, Bryant Family, Tusk, and Dana Estates), he has also planted his flag at the apex of California white wine, by making Lail’s bar-setting Sauvignon Blanc as well as his own Melka Estates wines. Both of these stellar whites are known for earning the lofty scores—and commanding the kind of triple-digit prices—that are more commonly associated with super-high-end Napa Cabernet, making today’s Moone-Tsai an even greater value from this winemaking maven.

Think of your favorite California Chardonnay—the one you reach for on special occasions, or when it’s time to impress a guest—and then think of how it could get better. Moone Tsai bottles that X-factor in an awe-inspiring white wine. It’s those fireworks that made us forget about the view from Howell Mountain, and that is the taste we know Moone Tsai will deliver when you pop the first cork, whether it’s this fall or three years from now.