Raeburn Russian River Valley Chardonnay White Wine

In our September 2026 checks, this Raeburn Chardonnay fell between $16.99 and $26.99. Raeburn says Derek Benham started the winery in the Russian River Valley in 2014, and the wine's stated origin is that same valley.

Region research describes the Russian River Valley as a cool corner of Sonoma County where Pacific fog pushes inland through a gap in the hills, with warm afternoons and cool nights that draw out the growing season, and it stresses that the fog is uneven, so conditions shift from one part of the valley to the next. It has been a federally recognized growing area there since 1983. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine.

Raeburn's current Chardonnay product page complicates that origin: it lists the wine's appellation as Sonoma County, not Russian River Valley, for the flagship 2023-vintage Chardonnay carrying a 92-point James Suckling score. The winery's own account of itself elsewhere states its wines are drawn “from the finest vineyards across Sonoma County and the Russian River Valley,” so the producer's own pages do not agree on how narrowly to name this wine's fruit. What the current page does confirm plainly: 100 percent Chardonnay, and a producer tasting note calling it “a nod to classic California Chardonnay, elegant and expressive with intense fruit character, creaminess and toasty vanilla.”

Our call: this suits a shopper buying on the winery's story and its Sonoma County pedigree, backed by a 92-point James Suckling score for the current vintage. Pass if the Russian River Valley name on the label is the reason you reached for it; the producer's own current page names the wider Sonoma County as the appellation, not Russian River Valley specifically, so the exact origin here is not settled to that narrower standard.

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