Patz & Hall Chardonnay Napa Valley 2006

Delivers a mouthful of ripe pear, peach, honey and hazelnut flavors that persist on the finish, where it turns rich and elegant. Beautifully crafted.

Medium body and acid. Lots of fruit. Medium oak. Limes, earth, smoke, Grand Marnier. Slightly creamy with rustic notes and fairly concentrated flavors. Elegant and straightforward, with lingering fruit.

For starters, it is hard to find a better white than the 2006 Chardonnay Napa. A light straw color is accompanied by beautiful aromas of honeysuckle, tropical fruits, crushed rocks, and subtle smoke. One of the most impressive Burgundian-styled negociant operations on California, the quartet of Donald and Heather Patz, James Hall, and Anne Moses continues to fine tune and improve what were already top-notch wines. Their 2006 Chardonnays represent successes for the vintage.

The 1997 Chardonnay Napa comes from three vineyard sources - Atlas Peak, Hyde Vineyard and Caldwell Vineyard. Less Burgundian that the more mineral-dominated Sonoma Coast offering, the Napa Chardonnay exhibits copious quantities of tropical fruit, full body, rich fruit and a more direct, less complex, but satisfying, impeccably made style. It is best consumed over the next 1-2 years.

Leesy, roasted, more tropical nose; more full blown and unapologetically Californian in style than the Woolsey Road. Lush and exotic but could use a bit more clarity and grip. In a distinctly fatter style.

Exhibits a rich, layered mix of ripe pear, fig, melon and honeysuckle flavors that are intense yet polished, firm and concentrated. The long, lingering finish repeats the fruit themes, with a hint of butterscotch. Drink now through 2012.

The freshness of this wine's tree-fruit flavor reacts to the fine oak with the taste of roasted and smoked pear. It's tight and facile, with a spiced-pear cider flavor that lingers with the oak. Simple and clean for now, this will grow more generous with a year or two of age.