The helicopter lifts off from the Hartford Court winery nestled in a canyon off the Russian River Valley in California’s Sonoma County, and heads west. We climb and climb until eventually, topping the Coastal Range, we run out over the glistening Pacific.

Then, banking 180 degrees, we turn back east and there before us is our destination – cut into the vast wall of dark green redwoods and conifers that cover the mountain side is a tiny rectangular patch of pale green, Hartford Court’s Seascape Vineyard.

What’s so remarkable about Seascape, and the chardonnay it produces, is that it is a perfect example of what separates truly great white wines from the merely excellent – that is it’s a wine that is a pure expression of the terroir from which it comes.

Because it is located on a ridge line overlooking the Pacific it is one of the coolest vineyards in California, so cool that the chardonnay is often not picked till November.

The point here is that while it’s possible to make fine wine in warmer climates, as a general rule the very best wines tend to come from the extreme northern limits of where that particular varietal will ripen. A longer growing season – hang time in winery-speak – results in leaner, more intensely mineral laden wine and that is exactly what I found in the Hartford Court Seascape Vineyards Chardonnay 2001 I tasted recently.

So tightly wound and closed at first that all I get is a bracing lemony acidity. There’s even that petroly element

It's unusual to find a vineyard next to conifers

you often find in old rieslings. Then, slowly, after an hour, subtle floral and mineral flavors begin to emerge, along with hints of lychees, grapefruits and Mackintosh apples. The next day, after a night spent in the refrigerator, these all become more prominent, especially the slate-like minerality, but this is a wine that’s still very far from revealing it’s true potential, even at eight years of age.

As such it epitomizes that unique angularity, that edgy personality, that sense of pure elegance great white wines are capable of achieving. Moreover, no other California chardonnay manages to be so totally and unmistakably an expressionof its unique terroir.

+++++++

A note on availability: In some years only 85 cases of this special wine are made, in some as “much” as 500 cases, so the 2001 will be pretty difficult to track down. The 2006 is available in limited quantities from the winery at $65.