Winemaker Notes
This is an elegant Chardonnay that displays fresh, bright aromatics of lime peel, guava, beeswax and lemon zest backed by hints of honeysuckle and jasmine. Flavors of key lime pie coat the palate with a hint of hazelnut, and its minerality is nicely balanced with soft acidity.
Enjoy it paired with salmon carpaccio drizzled with avocado oil and sprinkled with capers or with a coconut chicken curry with topped with chopped almonds, but it is best with a giant hunk of Humbolt Fog cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2019 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block UU is bright, airy and wonderfully sculpted. White flowers, mint, white pepper and lemon peel are all finely-knit. As always, the UU Block Chardonnay is distinguished by its weightless personality, which makes it one of the most singular wines from Bien Nacido.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose on this block-designated bottling is immensely intriguing, offering chalk, lemon peel and shiso leaf aromas. The palate is both tense in structure yet mouthfilling in flavor, with bright acidity delivering lemon glaze and light nut flavors into a chalky finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block UU brings up the intensity with lots of buttered apple, toasted hazelnut, white flowers, and toasty notes in a pretty, pure, yet still tight and focused style. It should have 5-7 years of longevity and is a great value in California Chardonnay.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard Block UU has a nose of white peaches, beeswax, honeysuckle and roasted almonds. The palate is light-bodied and gently creamy, with a balancing tanginess to the acidity and a bright, citrusy finish. Best After 2022
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.