You may have heard about the heat wave we recently experienced here in northern California, and hot weather like this alters the way we eat and drink at home. Earlier this week, for example, Barbara assembled one of my favorite warm-weather meals – Prosciutto and melon — and we enjoyed it with a slightly chilled bottle of Neyers 2024 Pinot Noir ‘Placida Vineyard’.

We passed the magnum to one of Brian’s colleagues who tasted it, then pronounced it as possibly the single greatest white Burgundy he’d had in his life! It was a remarkable bottle.

The weather is cold in Chablis – the coldest region in France where Chardonnay is grown – and the fields of vines seem almost hostile. Who would dare make wine from a region this uncomfortable for man? Make wine they do, though, some of the greatest in the world.

The grapes are grown in the Russian River Vineyard of Chuy Ordaz – one of California’s most celebrated grape farmers — and the plant material came from the former Joe Swan vineyard in Forestville.