Vignerons Schmölzer & Brown Chardonnay 2023

Predominantly made from declassified Thorley Vineyard fruit with a small amount from the Brunnen Vineyard. High quality cedar and gunsmoke make for a striking start. Oh how the flinty reduction excites! Sweet cinnamon spice fills things out, along with apple blossom, green apple, and white nectarine. Some sourdough notes from the lees add dimension and complexity. At this stage, I’m already thinking this punches above its $44 price point, and that’s before the wine’s even passed my lips. The palate has good intensity and lifted fruit sliced by a spine of bristling acidity. Cinnamon spiced apple, lemon, cedar, apple blossom, and white nectarine are pulled long through the palate, the acid clean and bright. Great complexity, texture, intensity and length here. A steal for the money and only 56 dozen made. Run, don’t walk.