2023 Dragonette Cellars Chardonnay Rita's Crown Vineyard Sta. Rita Hills 750 ml

Galloni once called Dragonette “one of the most fascinating wineries in the Central Coast”—and we try to lock down as much of their Rita’s Crown Chardonnay as we can every single year.

There’s not much more to say. This is simply one of the finest American Chardonnays you can buy.

Dragonette has a knack for finding the finest vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills, and none tops Rita’s Crown, which is named for its position at the pinnacle of the AVA. Brandon, along with partners John and Steve Dragonette, first laid eyes on the site more than a decade ago… when it looked a lot different. 

“Essentially, we were able to tour Rita’s Crown before there was anything planted,” Dragonette co-founder Brandon Sparks-Gillis told us as we walked one of the plots he’d selected when the site was just rocky, untamed earth beaten by the bright sun and Pacific winds. But Rita’s Crown appealed to John Dragonette and Brandon immediately, and its threadbare state just made its virtues more obvious.

“We were searching for a site with a strong diatomaceous imprint,” Brandon told us, referring to the soils containing large amounts of silica and rocks as light as feathers—similar to the same prized qualities in the soils of Champagne and Spain’s Jerez region. Rita’s Crown checked pretty much every other box, too. “It’s a steep hillside planting, the vines struggle, which keeps the yield low,” he explained. “It’s above the fog line on many days and gets hammered by the wind, which adds a heck of a lot of character to the grapes. We definitely sacrifice quantity for quality, getting just a couple tons per acre.”