Bien Nacido Estate Collection Chardonnay 2022

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Bien Nacido Estate Collection Chardonnay 2022.

Bien Nacido Estate Collection Chardonnay 2022
13.5% alcohol, cork, Santa Maria Valley.

I visited Bien Nacido Estate as part of a focus on sustainability in the Californian wine industry. I came away both impressed with the sustainability focus – “sustainability is the starting point to making a better product,” vineyard manager Greg Gonzalez said – and excited by the wines themselves. This chardonnay was the first wine from the estate that I tasted. It shot my pulse up a notch.

Bien Nacido Estate Collection Chardonnay 2022 is seriously good. It’s so powerful but, also, so balanced. Stonefriut, melon, cream, honey, cedar and woodsmoke characters invigorate the palate, the latter skirting close to smoked bacon. But at every step, the fruit is the champion of this wine, as is the length. This chardonnay spins straight into gorgeous territory. 95 points.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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