2017 Chardonnay Rincon Vineyard

Long one of the New World’s most reliable producers of elegant, age-worthy Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Brian Talley produced a knockout set of wines in 2017. According to no-nonsense Talley, 2018 is on pace to be at a similar quality level, with 25% higher production. While the availability of the single-vineyard bottlings here is small, and the wines are not particularly easy to find outside of wine-centric restaurants and the cellars of mailing list customers, the entry-level, Arroyo Grande–designated wines see broad worldwide distribution and deliver outstanding value for their quality. There’s an estate Syrah here now, made with 50% whole clusters, and it’s extremely good, but with only 180 cases made, it’ll be a tough bottle to track down.