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 article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. 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, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

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