2021 Dragonette Cellars Chardonnay Rita's Crown Vineyard Sta. Rita Hills is sold out.

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Santa Barbara’s #1 Chardonnay of the vintage

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  • 97 pts Vinous
    97 pts Vinous
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2021 Dragonette Cellars Chardonnay Rita's Crown Vineyard Sta. Rita Hills 750 ml

Sold Out

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  • Curated by unrivaled experts
  • Choose your delivery date
  • Temperature controlled shipping options
  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

Stands with the Best, Bar None

From one of our favorite wineries in California—and one that Antonio Galloni called “one of the most fascinating wineries in the Central Coast”—this is Santa Barbara’s top Chardonnay of the vintage, with a score matching both Peter Michael’s $130+ Belle Côte and Aubert’s $190+ Park Avenue. Galloni called it “magnificent” and “one of the most compelling wines from Santa Barbara I tasted this year.”

Dragonette has a knack for finding the finest vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills, and none tops Rita’s Crown, which is named for its position at the pinnacle of the AVA. Brandon, along with partners John and Steve Dragonette, first laid eyes on the site more than a decade ago…when it looked a lot different. 

“Essentially, we were able to tour Rita’s Crown before there was anything planted,” Dragonette co-founder Brandon Sparks-Gillis told us as we walked one of the plots he’d selected when the site was just rocky, untamed earth beaten by the bright sun and Pacific winds. But Rita’s Crown appealed to John Dragonette and Brandon immediately.

“We were searching for a site with a strong diatomaceous imprint,” Brandon told us, referring to the soils containing large amounts of silica and rocks as light as feathers—similar to the same prized qualities in the soils of Champagne and Spain’s Jerez region. Rita’s Crown checked pretty much every other box, too. “It’s a steep hillside planting, the vines struggle, which keeps the yield low,” he explained. “It’s above the fog line on many days and gets hammered by the wind, which adds a heck of a lot of character to the grapes. We definitely sacrifice quantity for quality, getting just a couple tons per acre.”