2019 Le Vigne Winery Chardonnay Central Coast 750 ml

If you ever have a chance to grab a single-vineyard, estate-grown California Chardonnay for less than $30, you should take it. If that wine comes from a “top-flight winemaker” at a price like this, abandon every second thought on your way to the checkout.

That’s the deal on the table today. Le Vigne's 2019 blows way past expectations for what under-$20 Chardonnay can be, combining everything we love in Golden State Chardonnay: the creamy texture, bold tropical fruit, and nuanced baking spices. 

Drawn from the choicest ten acres on Le Vigne’s Domenico Estate Vineyard, this is a miraculous catch at today’s price. It’s a deal you frankly almost never see for Chardonnay raised on family-owned vineyards that have been meticulously monitored and tended from budbreak to harvest.

That labor-intensive approach—overseen by Terry Culton, one of the top Chardonnay minds in Paso Robles and a “top-flight winemaker” according to Robert Parker—makes for a wine whose marvelous complexity had us drawing comparisons to much pricier bottles. 

Rich, broad, and sleek in texture, the Le Vigne Chardonnay sends a seemingly endless procession of flavors across the palate: white flower, ripe peach, butterscotch, sarsaparilla, and lemon, each rendered with bold California intensity. When we tried this over lunch at Bouchon, we spent half an hour waving off the waiter, trying to tease out everything we were tasting—a game we’re accustomed to playing with $60 bottles, not ones at this price.

This Chardonnay has a vibrancy that is synonymous with Paso Robles, which was called one of the “most dynamic [regions] in California'' by Wine Spectator. Here, the Templeton Gap—a literal gap in the Santa Lucia Mountains—ushers in cool ocean breezes that almost guarantee gradual, even ripening. The region sees sunny afternoons exceeding 100 degrees and nights cooling off into the low 50s, lending this Chardonnay grace and natural balance, light-years away from austerity or flabbiness.

In 2019, Terry read the vintage beautifully, with a comedian’s sense of timing and a chef’s judicious intuition for seasoning. In other words, he knows when enough is enough. He carefully monitored the grapes’ hang-time, harvesting just as concentration began catching up with the appellation’s marine-influenced freshness. Then he applied a touch of oak, which helps account for why this wine feels so silky and luxurious on the palate. 

It’s the kind of luscious, complex California Chardonnay that rarely comes at this price.