2023 Pavette Chardonnay, North Coast, California, USA

Tasting note

A ripe and flavoursome Chardonnay bursting with lemon curd and baked apple notes. It has an unctuous texture rich with notes of tropical fruit flavors with great length and versatility.

Our thoughts

Pavette is part of the stable of names that comprises Valkyrie, a portfolio founded by serial Californian wine entrepeneur Baron Ziegler with winemaker Rob Fischer, whose CV includes such stellar producers as Etude, Lyric and Beaulieu Vineyards. Californian Chardonnay has something of a chequered reputation, but is capable of delivering freshness and nuance when harnessing the cooling fog from the San Francisco Bay. Pavette’s bottling is blended across a range of sites that stretches as far inland as Lodi, whose Mediterranean climate is tempered by its many rivers, and boasts a bright, zingy palate, rounded by notes of lemon curd and baked apple.