Refined, textural and deeply expressive, the 2023 Stone Flat Vineyard Chardonnay from Kistler Vineyards is a study in balance and precision. Pale straw with silver-gold glints, it opens with beautifully restrained aromas of Meyer lemon, pear and white peach, underpinned by notes of chalk dust, toasted almond and sea breeze. On the palate, it’s crystalline and composed with layers of citrus and orchard fruit that glide over a fine mineral backbone, enriched by gentle lees texture and a whisper of oak spice. The finish is long, pure and saline, lingering with hints of hazelnut, lemon peel and crushed stone. It’s a wine of quiet confidence, all clarity, no excess.

For when: you want Chardonnay that feels sculpted, not styled.
Pairs with: seared scallops, roast chicken, or buttery Dover sole.
If this wine were a landscape, it’d be coastal Sonoma at dawn,  cool, bright, and perfectly still.

Kistler Vineyards, founded in 1978 by Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler, is a benchmark producer of Sonoma’s cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The estate’s philosophy, one clone, one method, many terroirs, allows the nuances of soil and microclimate to shine through each bottling. From the fog-draped slopes of the Sonoma Coast to the inland warmth of the Russian River Valley, every Kistler wine speaks of its site with remarkable precision and poise.

The Stone Flat Vineyard lies on an ancient uplift of fractured shale and sandstone, its name a nod to the mineral-rich soils that define its character. The site’s cool exposure and poor drainage yield fruit of low yield but exceptional concentration. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in French oak (roughly 30–40% new), the 2023 vintage captures the vineyard’s hallmark style, linear, taut and mineral-driven, with a subtle depth that unfolds gracefully in the glass. A wine that embodies the Kistler ethos: purity, patience, and the unmistakable whisper of the coast.