Mount Eden’s Chardonnay comes off vines planted in 1976 — the oldest in the Edna Valley — and the winery has never priced it like the trophy it competes with. 60 bottles land tomorrow.

Planted 1976 · Oldest Vines in Edna Valley · Arrives Friday 9/11

A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

There is a vineyard in the Edna Valley, outside San Luis Obispo, that was planted in 1976. It is the oldest in the appellation. Andy MacGregor put the vines in the ground; Jean-Pierre Wolff bought the property from him in 1999 and still farms the fifty-five acres.

Mount Eden has been making Chardonnay from that fruit since 1985. Forty years, one vineyard, the same hands.

Who Mount Eden Is

The story starts in 1878, when a Burgundian named Paul Masson came to California, planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from cuttings he got from Louis Latour, and started making sparkling wine in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Prohibition ended that. In 1943 Martin Ray bought what was left of Masson’s company and replanted those cuttings two thousand feet above Saratoga, adding Cabernet from Chateau Margaux material. Mount Eden was founded on that site in 1945.

It is one of the oldest continuously producing estates in California, and it is still run like a small farm.

What It Costs, and Why That Is Strange

A ninety-three point Chardonnay off fifty-year-old vines, from an estate with that history, should not be $24.99. Mount Eden has simply never chased the price its reputation would support, and this bottling in particular has stayed on the value side of the shelf while everything around it climbed.

That is the whole pitch. There is no discount here and no gimmick. It is just priced the way it has always been priced.

A Footnote Worth Having

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married in May 2018, the red poured at the reception was the 2014 Pinot Noir from Domaine Eden, Mount Eden’s second label. The estate found out about it a week later, from the news.

That is the kind of winery this is.

Sixty Bottles, Tomorrow

Sixty bottles arrive Friday, September 11th, out of 4,784 cases made. If you have been looking for a white to buy by the case without thinking about it, this is the one I would point at.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

On Mount Eden

Four Critics, One Winery

Collected by Bowler Wine

Why This Matters

The Wine · 60 Bottles Tomorrow

2023 Mount Eden Chardonnay

Wolff Vineyard, Edna Valley — planted 1976, farmed for stone and citrus rather than weight.

2023 Mount Eden Chardonnay

Edna Valley · Wolff Vineyard · 100% Chardonnay

Honeysuckle, citrus, fresh bread and rose petal on the nose, and a palate that is high in acid and driven by soil rather than fruit. Barrel-fermented and aged in French oak, which gives it texture without turning it into a butter bomb. The Edna Valley is the last major Chardonnay region in California to be picked each year, and that long hang at low temperature is where the tension in this wine comes from.

Also On Offer

Five More Classic Chardonnays

Sorted low to high, from a four-critic Napa benchmark to a ninety-seven point Knights Valley mountain block.

2023 Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay

Napa Valley · JS 96 · JD 95 · OB 95 · WS 92

Four critics at ninety-five or better, three of them at ninety-five and up. Beringer’s Private Reserve is the bottling the estate builds its reputation on, and it has been quietly beating Napa Chardonnays at twice the money for years.

Elsewhere: $50.00

$34.99 btl on 6+

$39.99/btl on 1-5

Applies automatically at checkout — no code needed

• 18 bottles

2025 Massican Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard

Napa & Sonoma · WRO 95 · JS 95 · WS 93

Hyde is one of the most quoted vineyard names in Carneros, and Massican works it in the lean, savoury register that made the label a sommelier staple. Organically farmed, and the new vintage just landed.

Elsewhere: $60.00

$49.97

• 12 bottles

2023 Stony Hill Vineyard Chardonnay SHV

Napa Valley · Spring Mountain · Planted 1948

Spring Mountain fruit from vines first put in the ground in 1948, and one of the few Napa Chardonnays with a track record measured in decades rather than vintages. Eight bottles here.

Elsewhere: $60.00

$49.99

• 8 bottles

2023 Chateau Montelena Estate Chardonnay

Napa Valley · DM 95

The house that won the Judgment of Paris in 1976 — the same year the Wolff vines went in the ground at the top of this email. Ninety-five points from Decanter, and still made in the restrained style that beat Burgundy.

Elsewhere: $85.00

$64.97 btl on 12+

$69.97/btl on 6+  ·  $74.97/btl on 1-5

Applies automatically at checkout — no code needed

• 24 bottles

2024 Peter Michael Chardonnay “La Carriere”

Knights Valley · VM 97 · JD 96 · WA 96 · WP 96 · WS 94

Five critics, none below ninety-four, topping out at ninety-seven from Vinous. La Carriere is the mountain block on the Knights Valley estate, and it is as close as California gets to grand cru white Burgundy.

Elsewhere: $160.00

$149.99

$139.99/btl on 3+  ·  $129.99/btl on 6+  ·  $119.99/btl on 12+

Applies automatically at checkout — no code needed

• 12 bottles

The Bottom Line

Vines from 1976, a winery from 1945, and a price that stayed put.

Everything about this bottle argues for costing more than it does. Fifty-year-old vines, the oldest planting in its valley, forty consecutive vintages from one grower, ninety-three points, and a drinking window that runs to 2033.

Sixty bottles land tomorrow. Buy it by the case and you will not think about white wine again until spring.

Cheers,

— James Tran

Owner · Artisan Wine & Spirits · Mountain View

60 bottles · arrives Friday, September 11th

Artisan Wine & Spirits · 2495 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043
Questions? Chat Live · sales@artisan.wine · 650-917-8080