This is probably one of my most anticipated wines of the year. The last vintage was one of my favorite wines of last year and that gives me a little bit of anticipatory fear, but thankfully I can assure you, my dear reader, that this Chardonnay lives up to the hype. The nose is classic and pretty with apples and pears drenched in freshly squeezed lemon but in the background there's this hint of pineapple and after a little bit of time in the glass there's some white flowers showing. The palate is soft and round with a pleasing but softened acidity and there's a touch of barrel in the finish, but it's light enough that I feel it would be hard for it to offend most people. There's some lightly baked apples and lemon wedges, and golden kiwi along with a long saline note tracing its way through the finish. At just $20 this is a crazy good wine for the price, ready to go with chicken, turkey, salmon, pasta primavera, or whatever you want to have a heck of a Chardonnay with. I am overjoyed to say that this is a worthy successor to my previous love. The King is dead, long live the King.