Chenoweth, Bootlegger’s Hill Chardonnay , 2019

93 POINTS for CHENOWETH BOOTLEGGER'S HILL CHARDONNAY 2019, and I owe this one to a rather humbling evening. A group of us did a blind tasting in someone's kitchen in Notting Hill last winter — twelve whites, supposed to be all Burgundy, and I was being insufferably confident about it. ​ I called my top wine as Meursault without a moment's hesitation. It was this. A single-block Russian River Valley Chardonnay from a ranch that was running moonshine on that very hillside during Prohibition. I've rarely been more pleased to be wrong. ​ The Chenoweth family have worked this land for generations, and Bootlegger's Hill is the jewel of it: cool Pacific air funnelling up through the valley, excellent drainage, and a long, unhurried 2019 growing season that built the kind of layered, nervy complexity you simply don't expect at this price. Those 93 points were no surprise to anyone who has spent time with this bottle. ​ Golden apple, ripe pear, and lemon curd over toasted brioche and warm vanilla, with a crème brûlée finish that keeps going long after the glass is empty.