Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/856981
august 2017 / the tasting panel / 91 A view of Monterey Bay. Chardonnay T Centering A MICRO CATEGORY REPORT ON CENTRAL COAST CHARDONNAY by Jessie Birschbach he Central Coast wine region spreads roughly 250 miles from San Francisco Bay to Santa Barbara County across eight counties—quite a stretch. But if there's one factor that unites this entire area, aside from coastal influ- ence, it's Chardonnay. It's the dominate variety grown in many of the Central Coast's counties. For this reason, The Tasting Panel has decided to introduce/ reacquaint our readers with some of the best values and a few heavy hitters. Monterey County Appropriately, we begin in the area of the Central Coast where Chardonnay remains queen; the golden grape makes up around half of Monterey's plantings (over 16,000 acres). This is likely because Monterey offers one of California's longest growing seasons. Harvest here typically occurs two weeks later than in much of the rest of California.