The Chardonnay grape is known for its malleability. Excesses of sunshine and winemaking have been known to abuse this compliant nature, not least in the US. Today’s three featured producers take no such liberties, making the most of cooling influences—the altitude of Mount Veeder, the fogs of Sonoma Coast or the latitude and Pacific influence of the Dundee Hills—to showcase slow-ripened, clear-cut energy. Respect, restraint and intuition in the cellar have delivered four impeccable Chardonnays.Mayacamas has carved out a towering reputation for the intricate, ageworthy Cabernet Sauvignon it grows high on Mount Veeder. But it was Chardonnay that propelled it to Napa icon status, with the first vines planted in 1975, up above the fog line at 700 metres. Words like “bright and racy”—even “Chablis-like”—in the reviews below might come as a surprise, but this layered wine shows the profoundness of its highland volcanic soils in timeless fashion.Hopping over to the Sonoma Coast, Eric Sussman’s scintillating form continues. “Radio-Coteau stands out in the Sonoma landscape for wines of exceptional purity, transparency and pedigree,” is Antonio Galloni’s verdict. And who doesn’t like to see those virtues in their Chardonnay? From 2020, we have an exceptional single-site wine from the Savoy vineyard in Mendocino’s Anderson Valley, almost Meursault-esque in its richness and complexity. And, from ’21 comes Wingtine Chardonnay, a wine that combines Sussman’s biodynamic home vineyard with Heintz Ranch—referred to by Robert Parker as “one of the greatest Grand Cru sites for Chardonnay in California”.We round out this trip with the estate at the heart of the Oregon origin story. “Eyrie wines have always been exemplars of finesse and nuance,” Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer declares. David Lett didn’t just plant the first vines here; he set and raised a benchmark for farming and sympathetic winemaking that continues to be a global reference. His son, Jason, continues this tradition. The 2021 Chardonnay—based on 57-year-old vines—gleams with Eyrie’s innate class, and the 2019 wine from Eyrie Vineyard is a resplendent, deftly hewn slice of history.