My local supermarket has been carrying this Chardonnay for several months, priced at $9 if you buy any mixed six. I've bought it a few times, but it doesn't appear that I've ever written up any notes on it; time to rectify that.

With annual sales around one million cases, J Lohr is one of the largest wineries in the USA. Their brands range from downright mediocre plonk to some excellent vineyard designate wines, with fruit sourced from Napa, Paso Robles and Arroyo Seco, though sadly not from the Santa Clara Valley.

The Riverstone Chardonnay comes from Monterey's Arroyo Seco AVA. Unlike altogether too much Monterey fruit it doesn't get excessive oak treatment, so the result is a wine that still shows plenty of Chardonnay character. The 2008 won a gold medal at the most recent SF Chronicle tasting.

2008 J Lohr "Riverstone" Chardonnay, Arroyo Seco
Nose shows pear and melon, with notes of lemon thyme and a subtle use of smoky oak. On the palate it's creamy and rounded with plenty of tropical fruit. The acidity is on the light side, but that's to be expected given the target market. Overall it offers very good value at under $10. 88

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Joe Miller is a former professor of astronomy at UC Santa Cruz, and a long time amateur winemaker. Having retired from the University he decided to start a small commercial winery among the growing band of vintners around Swift and Ingalls in Santa Cruz.

The fruit is all purchased, with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot coming from Bargetto's Regan Vineyard. No new oak is used; everything is at least 1 year old. Current production is around 800 cases, with plans to slowly expand to around 2000 cases.

2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Arroyo Seco
Lovely citrus, grassy nose. Lots of acidity; flavours of lemon, pear and green apple. Crisp finish 88 $15

2008 Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains
All Clone 4, from the Regan Vineyard. Unfined and unfiltered.
Creamy lemon nose. Lightly oaked, red apple and a little vanilla, good finish. 88 $18

2008 Pinot Noir, Regan Vineyard
Fermented in stainless steel with an 'oak chain' added.
Bright garnet colour. Nice cherry/raspberry nose, lots of cherry fruit, light acidity. Initially showed some pithy bitterness on the finish and was too cold; gained weight after it had warmed up. 88

2007 Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands
From Talbott's Sunny Slope Vineyard.
Darker colour than the Regan, nose was earthy with black cherry. Richer and more full bodied; lots of black cherry and currant fruit with some coffee on the finish. 89

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A few local wine enthusiasts got together recently for dinner in Los Altos. One of the guests was Ian Brand; a former assistant winemaker at Big Basin and now consulting for several local wineries including Nicholson in Corralitos and Coastview in Monterey. He brought several of the wines he's been making (my notes were brief due to the dinner and a lack of power in my iPhone), including a 2008 Albariño from Pierce Ranch (Floral and fruity, but unfortunately served a bit too warm), a 2008 Nicholson Arroyo Seco Viognier (Light floral nose, with briny and biscuit/ice-cream wafer notes), a 2007 Coastview Syrah
(Meaty, savoury, smoky bacon on the nose. Good currant fruit, nice acidity and his personal label, a 2005 Le P'tit Paysan Meritage (Nose of roast meat, elderberry, smoke. Tight berry fruit - cranberry and boysenberry. Smooth tannins.)

As we left he handed me a couple of wines that we didn't get around to. One of them was an as yet unreleased Chardonnay from Coastview Vineyard. Coastview is located in the Gavilan Mountains at an elevation of 2300-2600 feet, possibly the highest vineyard in Monterey County and as high as Muns in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Coastview has similar limestone and granite soils as the Chalone AVA, but with a cooler microclimate.

The wine shows a lot of tropical fruit, both on the nose and the palate; particularly mango, nectarine and pear. Although it's smooth and rounded there's very little oak influence. (The wine sees only 20% new French oak, 80% neutral.) It reminded me of Michaud, which I haven't had in a while. The finish is long and rich. Since it's so young I had planned to save some to try the following day, but before I knew it the bottle was empty.

The release date is unconfirmed, as is the price, but it'll probably be in the same range as Michaud. 91 Recommended

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