2020 AXR Winery Chardonnay Napa Valley 750 ml

For the price, you won’t find a better Napa Valley Chardonnay than the 2020 AXR. 

This exquisite bottle is crafted by Jean Hoefliger, the 100-point legend regarded as one of the top Cabernet and Chardonnay aces in California. Hoefliger, a partner at AXR, is the guy who world-renowned enologist Michel Rolland trusts to make his namesake wine. At Newton, Hoefliger made Chardonnays that Robert Parker compared to Cote d’Or Burgundies, and he spent years making top bottles at blue-chip Napa estate Alpha Omega.

The 2020 Chardonnay that Hoefliger made at Alpha Omega, which earned 94 points from Lisa Perrotti-Brown’s The Wine Independent, will run you $78. This 2020 AXR earned the exact same score, making it a steal at the winery price of $44—and a must-buy at our discount. 

A globe-hopping talent, Hoefliger got his vinicultural degree in Switzerland, did formative stints in Bordeaux at Château Carbonnieux and Château Lynch-Bages under Jean-Michel Cazes, and consulted as winemaker as far afield as Meerlust in South Africa. 

Yet if you ask him his favorite place to make wine, he’ll tell you it’s Napa Valley. The consistent climate and growing season, the diversity of soils, and a culture that encourages creativity have provided him with a platform to turn out high-scoring Burgundian varieties of extraordinary precision and texture.

Hoefliger has made two perfect-score wines under The Debate label, another at Alpha Omega, and a slew of impressive ones for Newton as well. The man could not make a boring wine if he tried. His bottlings are always packed with incredibly pure, rich fruit, which is why this bottle is such a steal—at the winery’s price, sure, but especially at today’s discount.