2023 Lioco – Sonoma County Chardonnay (750ml)

LIOCO has spent nearly two decades making the case that California Chardonnay doesn’t need butter, oak, or alcohol heat to be extraordinary. Husband and wife team Matt and Sara Licklider built the winery around a simple conviction: let the fruit and the place do the talking. The SoCo — their Sonoma County bottling — is where that philosophy is most democratically expressed, and the 2023 vintage gave them everything they needed to make it sing.

2023 was the return of a classic California vintage — wet spring, a good-sized crop, October harvest dates, the kind of season that hasn’t been seen consistently since the 1990s. For the first time in many years, LIOCO went back to the original SoCo recipe: all fruit from the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast corridor, hand-picked in early to mid-October, foot-tread at the winery, and fermented entirely in stainless steel with no barrel lots blended in. The result is their most Chablis-like SoCo in years.

The 2023 is taut and steely in build but generous and creamy through the mid-palate, with golden apple, chalk, mint, marzipan, and chamomile blossoming in the glass. Vinified entirely in stainless steel, it is beautifully pure and crystal-clear, with a surprising amount of texture and weight at only 12.5% alcohol. Mouthwatering, with a low 3.4 pH — the kind of bright, mineral-driven tension that only cold growing seasons with long hang times can produce.

Fish and chips. Fresh oysters. A sunny afternoon. This is Chardonnay that makes you thirsty for another glass. Drink now through 2027.

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Once you receive the order at home, you have a period of 14 calendar days to manage the return or report an issue for free through your online account. Read more on our Shipping & Returns page.