Bernardus Vineyards

Bernardus “Ben” Pon founded his winery in Carmel Valley in 1990. But his location, while excellent for red Bordeaux varieties, is really too warm for high-quality Chardonnay. So the grapes for this wine are sourced from cooler parts of Monterey County, including the Santa Lucia Highlands and Arroyo Seco AVAs. (The blend also contains a small amount of fruit from Carneros.)

The wine was made by Dean De Korth, who has a lot of experience with Chardonnay, having worked in Burgundy and at Morgan Winery and Talbott Vineyards in Monterey. Ninety percent of the blend was barrel-fermented in French oak barrels, a third of them new, while the remainder was fermented at cool temperatures in stainless steel tanks. Eighty percent of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation. That combination of oak/stainless and partial ML has resulted in a wine that is fleshy and rich yet retains a nice freshness. The wine displays flavors of pear and pineapple, accented by some toasty oak. There’s a taut core of acidity, too. It’s exceptionally well balanced and, at $20, reasonably priced for a wine of this quality.

Reviewed May 7, 2007 by Laurie Daniel.