2018 Chardonnay Estate

Winemaker Paul Clifton oversees and works with this benchmark estate’s more than 1,400 acres of vines, roughly 650 of them in the heart of the Santa Lucia Highlands (representing almost 10% of the AVA’s total plantings) and another 750 in Arroyo Seco. From their fruit, he makes a number of bottlings from different varieties that hit a range of price points, and these SLH-designated wines, along with those made under Hahn’s Lucienne label, represent the winery’s upper range. The late Nicky Hahn, a native of Switzerland, released his first wine from the Santa Lucia Highlands in 1980 and steadily expanded his portfolio from there, focusing mostly on competitively priced bottlings. I often wonder if Hahn’s larger-production wines, which are sold under the Hahn Family Wines label at very fair prices, distract well-earned attention away from the SLH versions, which have been showing consistently high quality for years. These 2018s are a case in point, as they clearly convey the vintage’s typical energy and clarity and, in the case of the Estate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, a pretty large amount of wine was made: 12,000 cases of the Chardonnay and a whopping 35,000 of the Pinot. For their quality and Santa Lucia Highlands origins, they deliver serious value and should be easy to find at retail.