1997 Chardonnay Damaris Reserve Sonoma Coast

Winemaker Eric Stern, a concert-quality trombonist who trained at Julliard, benefitted from working with Helen Turley, who consulted here until 1996. Since then Stern has put his own stamp on these wines. The Landmark chardonnays are vinified with indigenous yeasts, with the malolactic fermentation occurring in barrel. "Beginning with the '98 vintage we are raising the level of solids in the wines," says Stern, "in order to get more complete fermentations-drier wines-and a nutty sulfidey complexity." Landmark, about 90% of whose wine comes from purchased fruit, now uses a hefty dollop of chardonnay from the Cottonwood Canyon Vineyard in Santa Maria in its Overlook and Damaris bottlings. Judging from the '97s I recently tasted, the limey lift and viscosity of this Central Coast chardonnay meld harmoniously with fruit from Sonoma County and Monterey.