2022 Miner The Iliad White Wine California 750 ml

The Iliad is Miner Family Winery's white Rhône blend, and one of the more characterful whites made in California.

Miner is a family-owned winery tucked into the eastern hills of Oakville, in the heart of Napa Valley. Most people meet the name through the reds—the Bordeaux-style blend The Oracle, the estate Cabernets—or through the Chardonnay. But the Rhône whites have a devoted following of their own, built on the instinct that guides everything here: find exceptional vineyard sites, farm them meticulously, and let each wine reflect where it grew. The name, fittingly for a wine with this much ambition, nods to Homer.

This is a California bottling in the fullest sense. Rather than lean on a single appellation, Miner draws fruit from three of the state's best regions for these grapes: Garden Creek in Alexander Valley, the estate vineyard in Oakville, and Steinbeck Vineyard in Paso Robles. Miner works only with sites where the team can control the farming, and the final blend is assembled from what each region does best.

The 2022 leads with Grenache Blanc, a variety that brings citrus energy and lift, filled out by Roussanne for body and a measure of Viognier for its unmistakable floral perfume. Nearly all of it is fermented in barrel and aged several months in French oak, a portion of it new. The result carries the roundness and depth you'd associate with a fine oaked Chardonnay, but without the heavy butter—texture and structure rather than weight for its own sake.

Credit for that balance goes in part to the vintage. 2022 was a standout year for California whites, yielding wines of real concentration and depth that still held on to their freshness and drive—exactly the tension you find here.

In the glass it's a pale gold, with aromas of white peach, lemon peel, and chamomile lifted by a floral top note. The palate has genuine presence—layered and lively, with a seam of acidity that keeps everything fresh through a long finish. It's a white built for the table, equally at home with roast chicken, richer seafood, or a spread of Mediterranean small plates.