Placeholder Image
SommSelect

Varner, “El Camino Vineyard” Chardonnay

Other, United States 2014 (750mL)
$22.00
/
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Your cart is empty.
  • In stock, ready to ship
  • Inventory on the way
Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol
SommSelect

Varner, “El Camino Vineyard” Chardonnay

By now you’ve probably formed a whole set of expectations as to what a $20-ish bottle of California Chardonnay is going to be like. Well, if you were thinking along the lines of ‘soft, tropical, sweet(ish), and buttery,’ think again: One of California’s true Chardonnay whisperers has, in our view, shifted the paradigm.
Many of you are likely familiar with twin brothers Bob and Jim Varner, who have been fixtures of the Santa Cruz Mountain wine scene for decades; their taut, elegant, cool-climate Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs are benchmarks for any wine list purporting to showcase the best of California, and it’s a testament to the low-key humility of the brothers that their wines never became stratospherically priced. This wine is from a relatively new frontier for the Varners—Santa Barbara County—and what it delivers at its incredibly modest price is downright shocking. We sat down with Bob Varner recently to learn more about Varner’s Santa Barbara project, and the 2014s (we’ll be offering the Pinot Noir soon) herald an exciting new chapter for a great winemaking family. The tension, purity, and refinement of these wines, at this price, is truly exceptional. Do yourself a favor and grab some!
As we were surprised to learn during our visit, the Varners—who’d been farming the same sites in the Santa Cruz Mountains since 1980—didn’t own their Santa Cruz vineyards. After parting ways with their longtime lessor there (2014 was their last Santa Cruz vintage), they’ve launched a few new projects—Foxglove is a value-oriented brand that includes two reds (a Cabernet and a Zinfandel) from Paso Robles, and the Varner name now graces a pair of wines from the Los Alamos region of Santa Barbara County. Although it isn’t an officially recognized AVA (the wines carry the ‘Santa Barbara County’ appellation), Los Alamos is sandwiched between the Santa Maria and Santa Ynez Valleys, with the same kind of east-west orientation that allows cool Pacific air to be funneled inland—creating dramatic diurnal temperature swings that help slow growth and preserve acidity in grapes. The “El Camino” vineyard, source of this Chardonnay, is a few miles inland from the famed Los Alamos vineyard (source of the Varner Pinot, among others, including a bottling from Au Bon Climat); it has a northwesterly aspect and sandy loam soils, and is farmed organically.

Varner’s 2014 from the El Camino site (only their second vintage of the wine) was fermented in stainless steel and did not go through malolactic fermentation, which is one reason the wine has such electrifying acidity. It was aged mostly in stainless steel on its lees, with a portion (about 25%) aged in large French oak puncheons. It shows terrific freshness, and doesn’t skew ‘tropical,’ as many Santa Barbara County Chardonnays do. The combination of crispness, minerality and depth of fruit had us thinking of upper-tier wines from Burgundy’s Mâcon, and not in the least about some of the oaky/buttery stereotypes (pretty outdated, really) that still dog California Chardonnay.

In the glass the 2014 El Camino Vineyard Chardonnay is a medium yellow-gold extending to the rim, with a refreshing blast of yellow apple, Bartlett pear, salted lemon, white flowers and a touch of wildflower honey leaping from the glass. It isn’t as mineral as, say, a Chablis, but it is built to a similar scale, with refreshing acidity and a hint of creaminess. The wine has amazing purity, texture, and grip at a price that typically gets you a glass of fruit cocktail. What a find! Serve it at 45 degrees in all-purpose white stems and pair it with some Pacific seafood—it would be dynamite with some lemon-drizzled fried or grilled oysters, in fact. Check it out with the attached recipe and prepare to re-calibrate your California Chardonnay palate (if any re-calibration is necessary). This stuff changes the game. Cheers!
Placeholder Image
Country
United States
Region
Other
Sub-Region
United StatesEl Camino Vineyard
Soil
Sandy Loam with some Limestone
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Chardonnay
Alcohol
13.8
OAK
Partial (25% in French oak puncheons)
TEMP.
50
Glassware
All-Purpose White / Burgundy Stem
Drinking
Now
Decanting
Optional
Pairing
Fried Oysters

United States

Washington

Columbia Valley

Like many Washington wines, the “Columbia Valley” indication only tells part of the story: Columbia Valley covers a huge swath of Central
Washington, within which are a wide array of smaller AVAs (appellations).

Oregon

Willamette Valley

Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become an elite winegrowing zone in record time. Pioneering vintner David Lett, of The Eyrie Vineyard, planted the first Pinot Noir in the region in 1965, soon to be followed by a cadre of forward-thinking growers who (correctly) saw their wines as America’s answer to French
Burgundies. Today, the Willamette
Valley is indeed compared favorably to Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s spiritual home. And while Pinot Noir accounts for 64% of Oregon’s vineyard plantings, there are cool-climate whites that must not be missed.

California

Santa Barbara

Among the unique features of Santa Barbara County appellations like Ballard Canyon (a sub-zone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA), is that it has a cool, Pacific-influenced climate juxtaposed with the intense luminosity of a southerly
latitude (the 34th parallel). Ballard Canyon has a more north-south orientation compared to most Santa Barbara AVAs, with soils of sandy
clay/loam and limestone.

California

Paso Robles

Situated at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is rooted in soils of sandy loam and falls within the Highlands District of the Paso Robles AVA.

New York

North Fork

Wine growers and producers on Long Island’s North Fork have traditionally compared their terroir to that of Bordeaux and have focused on French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Others We Love