“Leading off the three single vineyard Chardonnays, the 2018 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard is a larger production cuvée by this estate’s standards and there are 877 cases produced. Ojai has worked with Bien Nacido for years and pulls from some top sections of this vineyard, and the wine is aged in roughly 10% new French oak. Notes of tart apple, toasted bread, and salty, marine-influenced minerality all give way to an elegant, medium-bodied, beautifully balanced Chardonnay. It’s a prettier, more elegant example of Chardonnay from this vineyard (which normally produces a more burly style of wine), yet it has the classic salinity of this cooler site. Drink it any time over the coming decade.”