The 2018 Chardonnay Aurata is incredibly seamless and pure, its bass tones of peaches, beeswax and almonds streaked with saline character. The palate offers seamless waves of savory flavors that undulate through the mouth like satin, and it finishes with tremendous length and purity. It's simply magical!

The 2015 Chardonnay Aurata is gorgeous, exploding with a perfume of guava, honeycomb and quince paste laced with exotic herbs and spices—a deep well of perfume that's hard to put your finger on and brings you back to the glass again and again. The full-bodied palate is satiny, rounded, richly flavored and fresh, its powerful flavors supported by an appealing textural quality, finishing very, very long. Wow! It's not your typical Chardonnay, but I can't resist this rich, textural, fully flavored style from Maggie.

"The whole conversation is to hold your fruit at bay," says Maggie Harrison of Chardonnay. "It's a monster. It wants to give. People have gotten really afraid of it. It’s true if you have lots of sun it can get overblown, monolithic and tiring. There’s a culture of cropping high and picking early. Picking on acid, that whole thing, I don't get it. It's fruit, it's flavor. I decided to make Chardonnay the way I make everything else: hang it until it’s golden with brown seeds and the flavor in the berry is amazing. Then full malolactic fermentation and aging in barrel sur lie for 18 months before we even think about finishing it. I think we forget that the thing that’s so beguiling about the wines we love, there’s a profundity, a depth of character and articulation of flavor you can’t get to before pulling out the baby prematurely. You can decide in advance what you want the wine to be—in bonzai, you decide the form and prune it that way—and it can take that perfect form and serve a purpose. But those wines never feel fully formed to me. You can’t get there if you’re not meeting the fruit where it is. It’s just paying attention, being present, tasting things. Good construction lasts a long time whether it’s a shoe, a building or a wine. I don’t think you can have all the parts that lead to good construction without simply responding to the fruit in that moment." The 2014 Chardonnay Aurata has an open, inviting nose of honeycomb, cinnamon toast, baked apples, spiced pie crust, crushed hazelnuts and quince paste with notions of crème br?lée, jasmine and lemon cream—savory and intense. It’s medium-bodied, über silky, rich and intense with oodles of savory flavor layers opposed by tangy acidity and finishing long and textured. This is absolutely stunning and has the stuffing and structure to age beautifully. Winemaker Maggie Harrison says this wine has "a feeling of goldness," and I agree.

The 2013 Chardonnay Aurata was actually the last that Maggie Harrison picked in 2013, as she did not want it to suffer dilution after the September rain. It has a delightful, very subtle bouquet with hints of shaved almond, lime flower and honeysuckle. The palate is complex from the beginning with dried quince, hazelnut and smoke aromas, a fine bead of acidity with a hint of shaved lemongrass towards the finish. This is a superb Chardonnay.

There is already a tasting note for what appears to be the 2011 Aurata in the database reviewed by David Schildknecht, but Maggie Harrison told me that was actually the 2010! The 2011 actually comes from a different fruit source to the 2010. This comes from the Shea Vineyard where Maggie finds the power and density she is seeking and she actually takes half the Chardonnay from this vineyard, the other half kept by Dick Shea. It has an endearing bouquet with dried honey, a touch of wax resin and a cheeky hint of wild fennel. The palate is medium-bodied with lemon curd, a touch of shaved ginger and white pepper. This feels long in the mouth, gently building with a sustained finish that begs another sip. There are just 179 cases this year (hopefully to supplemented by new vineyard plantings in the future).