Grgich Hills Chardonnay California White Wine

Start with the number. In our September 2026 checks the low end we recorded for this bottle was $57.99. It is Chardonnay from California, made by Grgich Hills Estate, which says it has been family owned and run since 1977, when winemaker Mike Grgich and Austin Hills founded it in Napa Valley.

The grape leaves room for more than one style: official category guides say Chardonnay can stay lighter without oak and can turn rounder with it, with citrus and apple in cooler versions and stone or tropical fruit in riper ones. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine, so the number stands on its own. The top price we recorded in our September 2026 checks was $59.99.

Grgich Hills traces its Chardonnay reputation to one moment: winemaker Mike Grgich's 1973 Chardonnay, made while he worked at Chateau Montelena, took the top score over France's best white Burgundies at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the blind tasting credited with putting Napa Valley on the world wine map. A year later Grgich used that result to start Grgich Hills Cellar with Austin Hills of the Hills Bros. Coffee family, and the producer says he became known as “the King of Chardonnay.”

The current release's own technical sheet backs the reputation with numbers: 13 percent alcohol, fruit from the winery's American Canyon and Carneros vineyards, which the producer says are certified regenerative organic, and ten months of time in oak, mostly French oak barrels with a smaller portion in large oak casks called foudres. The producer also states the wine skips a secondary process called malolactic fermentation, which many Chardonnays use to soften the wine; skipping it, the producer says, is what keeps this one's natural acidity fresh.

Our call: this is the bottle for a shopper who buys on pedigree; Mike Grgich's Judgment of Paris story and the current release's full technical sheet are real, specific reasons to reach for it at this price. Pass if you want the crowd's confirmation before spending this much on a Chardonnay; no shopper rating has reached our record, so the producer's account and the technical sheet are carrying the full weight of the price.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.