The Black Goose winery is located in California's Sonoma county, right on Sonoma Mountain, in fact. It's a micro climate, with a range of soil conditions and weather changes that make harvest a bit of a challenge. The Chardonnay was planted in 1983, and for a number of years, the grapes were sold to "name" wineries like La Crema and Sebastiani. In 2002, the Bunker family who owned the vineyard decided to bottle as a single vineyard Chardonnay. It's been winning awards ever since. The Bunker Sonoma Mountain Vineyard Sonoma County Reserve is one of two wines they produce and bottle from the planting; it's barrel fermented for ten months. The other Chardonnay is Black Goose's Geraldine J, a a Chardonnay deliberately modeled after the Burgundian style Chardonnays, and made from Spring Mountain Chardonnay clones. The wine is aged for 14 months and French oak barrels, and then aged another year or so in bottles.

On opening the bottle, we noticed that the cork had small clear crystals on it, which was a little troubling. But the aroma was enticing—fresh, bright and slightly reminiscent of Champagne. The first impression was of full rounded fruit, with a hint of oak, at first, but honestly, I think I let the bottle get too cold. A half hour later the wine really opened up; a California Chardonnay in every positive sense of the word. The Bunker Sonoma Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay was citrusy, slightly reminiscent of pears, with a hint of a nutty undertone, and a buttery rounded finish. We'll definitely go back for more, though I suspect we'll be disappointed and find the wine is completely sold out. We found this at the Bargain Grocery for $4.99 a bottle. This would be a lovely wine to take on a picnic, and serve with an assortment of cheeses, crackers, good bread and some smoked salmon.