Marimar Estate, La Masía, Don Miguel Vineyard, Chardonnay, Russian River Valley 2021

A stellar Chardonnay from one of the mast famous families in wine today; this is Sonoma winemaking that is the perfect harnessing of the warm, Pacific climate and the European sensitivities from which the Torres family have emerged as one of the crown jewels.

La Masía (or the farmhouse in Catalan), is the humble name that Marimar Torres gives to this part of her Californian project; the vineyard, named after her father Miguel, is atypical of the microclimatic influences of the San Francisco fog, warm continental air-mass and the cooling breezes from the Pacific. It is therefore perfect for growing the Burgundian varieties of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

This is a beautiful wine; smooth, complex and layered; textured and intense, it carries a fairly hefty weight, but has a delicious array of flavours and a balancing acidity, making it a simply sumptuous and hugely enjoyable wine. Creamy and laced with notes of vanilla and shortbread, the core of orchard fruits and blossom is never lost.

Aged in French barriques, a third of which are new, this is made from grapes that are grown in high-density vineyards in the cool eastern region of the Russian River Valley. Grapes are hand-picked as you'd probably expect when making one of the top Californian whites.