2022 BOLD Wine Company Chardonnay Monterey County 750 ml

Made by Master Sommelier-turned-winemaker Chris Miller—who turned Wolfgang Puck’s Spago Beverly Hills into a Wine Spectator Grand Award winner—the 2022 Bold Wine Co. Chardonnay is as delicious as they come. It’s currently being poured at the five-diamond Peninsula Hotel, and when we tasted it, we immediately recognized how special it was. 

Grown in a set of blue-chip Monterey County vineyards renowned for their precision and aromatics—many of which sell for $70+ as single-vineyard bottlings—it’s fit for a place like Spago. But it costs a fraction of what you’d expect to pay for this kind of green apple, lemon blossom, and sea-spray–infused brilliance. 

We’ve known Chris Miller for a long time—the wine industry is small, and Napa is even smaller—but we never had the opportunity to taste his wines until just a few years ago. When we sat down at Napa’s Oxbow Market, Chris opened up an incredible lineup, nine bottles deep. Between Bold and his accompanying Seabold label, he translates some of the Central Coast’s greatest vineyards into the glass with captivating precision, focus, and honesty.

Small-lot bottles like this have earned Chris admiration among the restaurant industry’s biggest names—he even crafted the wines for Gordon Ramsay’s namesake label. Hell’s Kitchen fans know how selective Ramsay is with his praise and how focused he is on excellence, especially when it comes to his own restaurants. So his assertion that Chris is “a master of his craft” speaks volumes about the winemaker’s immense talent. 

Fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel, then aged 11 months in French oak (about 10% new), this is a Chardonnay that speaks deeply to Monterey’s Pacific influence. It’s a stunning value.