Elegant, finely etched and quietly powerful, the 2023 McCrea Vineyard Chardonnay from Kistler Vineyards is one of the most distinctive expressions in the portfolio, a Chardonnay born from altitude and patience. Pale gold with silvery hues, it opens with pristine aromas of white nectarine, Meyer lemon, jasmine and crushed rock, deepening to hints of toasted almond and wet slate. On the palate, it’s both taut and textural with citrus and stone fruit wrapped in a creamy mid-palate, balanced by electric acidity and a long, saline finish. There’s intensity without weight, richness without excess, the kind of quiet tension that marks truly great Chardonnay.

For when: the evening calls for stillness and subtlety in every sip.
Pairs with: grilled lobster, lemon sole, or roast chicken with tarragon butter.
If this wine were a landscape, it’d be a misty mountaintop at dawn - pure, calm and endlessly layered.

Kistler Vineyards, founded in 1978 by Steve Kistler and Mark Bixler, stands as one of California’s most iconic producers, a master of site-driven Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that bridge the Old World and the New. Guided by the philosophy one clone, one approach, many terroirs, Kistler crafts wines that share a singular house style: crystalline fruit, restrained oak, and a seamless sense of place.

The McCrea Vineyard, perched high on Sonoma Mountain, is one of Kistler’s coolest and most elevated sites, where rocky volcanic soils and long, slow ripening produce wines of remarkable purity and nerve. Hand-harvested fruit is whole-cluster pressed and fermented with native yeasts in French oak (around 30–40% new), then aged sur lie for texture and complexity. The 2023 vintage captures the vineyard’s signature duality, power and precision in perfect balance, yielding a Chardonnay of luminous depth, quiet intensity, and enduring grace.