The 2020 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard is powerful and full of personality. It offers aromas of white peach, elderflower, lime peel, meringue and dried mint. Creamy and harmonious, with tangy yet integrated acidity, the medium-bodied palate unfurls layer after layer of candied citrus and flinty sparks, and it finishes with incredible length and spiciness.

The 2019 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard is soft, bright and energetic. It has delicate aromas of quince paste, hazelnuts, stone and white flowers. Its silky, expansive palate has incredible detail, precision and lift that carries the long, mineral-driven finish.

The 2018 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard is exceptionally expressive and elegant this vintage. Opening with savory notes of prosciutto and mushroom, it fleshes out to ripe white peaches with accents of elderflower, citrus pith and hazelnut. It’s medium-bodied with a satin-like texture and expressive flavor layers, powerful but featherweight, cut through with tangy acidity and mineral notions and finishing incredibly long and ethereal. This is the best McCrea Chardonnay from Kistler I've ever tasted.

There's a boatload of Chardonnay from this reference point estate, and the beauty is that they're all distinct as well as brilliant. Starting with the 2018 Chardonnay McCrea, which comes from the eastern side of Sonoma and limestone soils, it offers a Chassagne-Montrachet-like bouquet of white flowers, lemon blossom, buttered stone fruits, and salty nuts and crushed rock-like nuances. It displays bright acidity, medium body, terrific concentration, and a rock star of a finish. Always one of my favorites in the lineup, it will benefit from a year in bottle and keep for 10-15 years in cold cellars.

The McCrea vineyard has two unique sets of soils: half the vineyard is old marine sediment uplift and the other half is red volcanic soil. The 2017 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard has an open nose of quince peel, baked Golden Delicious apple, toast, warm hay and toasted almonds with dried acacia, river stone and lime peel hints over a core of warm white peach. Medium-bodied, it's fully fruited and giving in the mouth, broad and juicy, with tropical touches coming through on the long, textured and energetic finish.