Lapostolle Cuvee Alexandre Chardonnay 2007

As Chilean Chardonnays go, this single-vineyard bottling from Lapostolle is smooth and toasty, with plenty of vanilla, smoke and tropical fruit aromas. The vintage was a good one, and that's reflected in the wine's body, which is hefty and broad but nicely balanced by freshening acids. If you like vanilla and toast accenting ripe New World flavors, this is for you.

The 2005 Chardonnay "Cuvee Alexandre - Atalayas Vineyard" is a refined wine with nuances of vanilla, buttered toast, butterscotch, and tropical fruit flavors along with well-integrated oak. This nicely balanced, layered wine should drink well for the next 18-24 months.

Rich and stylish, with pear, fig, hazelnut and brioche notes that run through the rich, lengthy finish. A nice mineral hint really stretches it out. Drink now.

Nicely focused, with a racy core of fig, hazelnut and pear notes that stays pure and elegant as the toasty edge remains in the background. The finish is long and juicy. Very stylish. Drink now through 2008.

Very stylish, with nice underlying richness as the suave toast melds into the pear tartine, Jonagold apple and floral notes. The long, creamy finish has nice lingering minerality. Drink now through 2010.

Buttery and rich, this is probably Lapostolle's best Chardonnay to date; it has sweet, alluring baked pear, apple and peach aromas followed by an intensely toasty but balanced palate that shows flavors of papaya, banana, pear and fine French oak. A wine to drink as soon as you can pop the cork.

Light gold. Exotic aromas of smoked meat, poached pear, yellow plum and oak spices. Weighty but precise on the palate, offering lively citrus and pit fruit flavors and a jolt of candied licorice. The oak spice repeats on the finish, which is broad and gently sweet.