JenniferMark Wines continues to impress and delight us. This time around, with their 2015 Courtney’s Vineyard Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay. How they were able to source their fruit from this fabled vineyard is beyond us, but we commend that for their score… which is your score, dear Operative. Don’t miss this shining, delicious steal.

This Chardonnay boasts a lovely chartreuse hue, perfect clarity, and medium viscosity. Taking a sniff, you’re greeted by baked apple and fresh pear, with some interesting papaya tropical fruit. There are hints of oak with light toffee aromas. A sip will introduce flavors of loquat, lychee, and kiwi to keep the green apple and elderflower notes company. It’s very bright on the palate with cooling acidity that creates a fruity experience up front that settles into more robust oak notes towards the finish. Perfect for a complex meal like a chef’s salad with walnuts, blue cheese, hardboiled egg, and all the trimmings.

The Sta. Rita Hills AVA in Santa Barbara County is one of California’s premier cool-climate AVAs. It is also one of California’s smaller AVAs with 99% of its territory falling within the larger Santa Ynez Valley AVA. Intersected by Santa Ynez River, this picturesque region is located between the towns of Buellton and Lompoc in Santa Barbara County. The 52-acre Courtney’s Vineyard is a hillside property that features limestone-based soil types. As one would expect from the Sta. Rita Hills, this is a cool, coastally-influenced site. Planted to a mix of clones carefully matched to the terroir. This 205-acre site, which sits at an elevation of 700 feet boasts limestone soils that impart the unique characteristics of this important AVA.

This wine is a steal, so if you love a great Chardonnay as much as the next discerning agent, you’ll want to stock up.