2023 Brick & Mortar Chardonnay Anderson Valley 750 ml

In Sonoma, there might not be a higher honor than placing a wine on SingleThread’s wine list. The MICHELIN three-star is the region’s premier dining destination, and their wine list is formidable. It’s packed with the very best from near and far, and only the cream of the crop makes the cut.

Alexis and Matt Iaconis’ Brick & Mortar has four different wines on that list, and for good reason. Few wineries in Napa or Sonoma deliver as much quality in their wines—and price them so reasonably. That combination prompted Wine Enthusiast to recognize them for “carving out a broader sense of what’s possible” in California as one of their “Innovative New Guard Winemakers.”

Brick & Mortar is led by winemaker Matt Iaconis, who was bound for another field—aeronautical engineering—until an elective class at UC Davis piqued his interest in wine. He was hooked. He honed his skills at Piero Antinori’s Antica Napa Valley estate, and he’s since left his mark in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and France. But it was a summer in Burgundy that cemented his commitment to cool-climate, terroir-driven, European-inspired wines, and in 2011, Brick & Mortar was born. 

Matt’s philosophy of crafting site-specific wines with moderate alcohol and bright acidity applies perfectly to sparkling wine, as does his “secret” of hands-off winemaking, a technique rooted in patience. “Less is more,” he says. “Nowadays, while I maintain the wine, I do almost nothing once the wine hits the barrel, and minimal prior to that.”

For this Chardonnay, that means working with some of the Anderson Valley’s top sites, like Ferrington Vineyard, and pressing the grapes as whole clusters, which ensures that flavors are pure and bright. Matt then ferments the juice entirely with native yeasts—fermentation can last up to six months—in French oak barrels. Only a small fraction (15%) are new, so that the character of the region can shine through.

In a cool year like 2023, with long hang-times and electric acidity, those techniques produced magic. We’ll be drinking this with fall and winter seafood and well into spring. You should do the same.