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This is a blend of La Crema’s best chardonnays from nine of the highest quality barrels. According to the staff at La Crema, it is hand crafted, layered and expressive, a passion of the winemaker.

We have tasted this twice at the winery and once at home and each time it has been an exceptional and delicious wine. I pick up notes of toffee in the nose, but my tasting partner smells sugary frosting. The color is lightly golden and the wine is clean. The texture is not oily and buttery, but it is creamy and complex with some acidity in the finish.

I think the Russian River chardonnays always have a touch of butterscotch in the flavor, something I’ve really come to appreciate, and this one does as well. I also taste layers of caramel, vanilla, ripe pear and baked apple. It is 14.5% in alcohol.

This is La Crema’s premium chardonnay and it retails for $70 in the winery or $59.50 for wine club members. This is a little high priced for my day to day wine budget, but it truly is a delightful chardonnay for a special occasion.

I pick up vanilla in the nose, a very good sign from the start, with a hint of nutmeg.  This wine is full of creamy richness with pear overtones.  You can see the creaminess in the body of the wine by its thick legs on the sides of the glass.  The color is medium golden.

It is flavorful and complex and finishes with a smoky aftertaste of roasted marshmallows.  14.8% alcohol.

I asked my friends to taste this wine with me and here are their comments:  “luscious and creamy”, “elegantly styled, polished body”, “smoky finish, hints of nutmeg and clove in the nose.”  Even the non-white wine drinker in the group found plenty of good things to say about this Sbragia Chardonnay.

Overall, I loved this wine. But, I have to warn you, the wine sells for $48.00 at the winery and approximately $40.00 online. When I started this blog, I set out to find reasonably priced, but delicious, creamy or buttery, oaky chardonnays. So, with that said, I would recommend this wine for a special occasion.

I’m still on my mission to find something as delicious but at a lower price!

This is a small lot blend designed, according to the winemaker’s notes, to be a blend of bold, lively flavors.

In style it is polished and refined, tastes clean, light bodied and light on the palate with a little bit of acidity. It is delicate and faintly flavored with hints of creamy vanilla and caramel but nothing distinctive. It is even light in color.

It drinks well but doesn’t live up to its promise to be a bold and lively wine. This tasted well in the winery, so I’m not sure why this subsequent tasting doesn’t measure up to my first experience. But, we are headed back to Parducci in March to pick up our wine club shipment. I’ll give this chardonnay another try then and report back.

The wine is 13.5% in alcohol and retails for $9.90 at Safeway or $13.00 at the winery.

This wine has a clean, fresh scent of pear in the nose, with hints of stone fruit. I taste the butterscotch right away but it’s layered with oak and hints of hazelnut for a complex, lingering finish. Hidden in the finish is a touch of tanginess due to its acidity. Butterscotch is the major theme here.

This wine doesn’t meet the criteria for the quintessential creamy, buttery chardonnay that I am always seeking. But it is representative of the Russian River Valley that produces a unique chardonnay with the butterscotch characteristic. From Mendocino to Sonoma (Russian River straddles both) we found this flavor over and over again in chardonnays.

We picked this wine up from the La Crema wine tasting room in Healdsburg during our recent trip through Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. A quick search online shows that the 2013 is out of stock, but it is still available on the La Crema website. $30 per bottle or $24 for wine club members.

The La Crema chardonnay pairs nicely with pan fried filet of sole, a mushroom risotto, or a platter of mild cheddar and marcona almonds.

This is one more of the “goodbye wines” and it surprised me. I had heard good things about the wine and expected it to be somewhat complex with overtones of butterscotch and caramel (perhaps because of the winery’s name). But it turned out to be lighter and more mellow than I anticipated.

The wine exhibits tones of citrus blossom, layered with minerality. The mouth feel is soft and round and the style is clean.

The vineyard is planted in gravel-rich, clay loam soils. The cool climate produces a mineral driven chardonnay. The wine is 14.3% in alcohol. The suggested retail price at the winery is $27.00 but the wine can be found online for around $20.

This was not a chardonnay that had the characteristics I’m typically looking for in a wine and to be honest, the minerality threw me off initially. I had to taste it several times to really distinguish the flavors. But, we are headed to Sonoma soon for wine tasting. The winery has a good reputation and if time permits, I’ll make my way there and give their chardonnay another chance.