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2017 VintageTasted: Oct 2019

This wine's aromas are pleasing, with notes of apple, cream and spice. Full-feeling yet nuanced fruit flavors follow. Spice notes linger on the finish. It displays a lovely sense of balance that kicks it up a notch. Sean P. Sullivan

2016 VintageTasted: Jan 2018

This wine has a throwback label celebrating Chateau Ste Michelle's 50th anniversary. Upfront aromas of clarified butter, peach and spice are followed by medium-bodied stone fruit flavors. It's a varietal crowd-pleaser.

2015 VintageTasted: Jan 2017

The warmth of the vintage shows through on the fruit of this wine, which is chock-full of pineapple and other tropical aromas and flavors, sweetened by light barrel accents. It's a guaranteed crowd pleaser and a spot-on example of the variety.

2014 VintageTasted: Jan 2016

Pear, butter and spice aromas lead to tingly, broad-feeling flavors that are straight down the fairway.

2012 VintageTasted: Jul 2015

This is a crisp, clean and nicely-structured Chardonnay, fermented in a mix of new and neutral oak, along with some stainless steel. A bit beer-like and yeasty at first, it opens into pleasing flavors of grapefruit and pineapple, with just the right amount of acidity.

2013 VintageTasted: Jan 2015

Coming from the warm 2013 vintage, this easy-drinking wine offers notes of sweet corn, pear and peach with light barrel accents. The fruit flavors are elegant with a lightly creamy feel.

2010 VintageTasted: Jul 2013

This well-crafted Chardonnay opens sharp and spicy, with light but juicy fruit. Flavors of clean apple and pear run into hints of peach, then resolve with a creamy finish.

2011 VintageTasted: Jan 2013

This bears apple and pear flavors that are set amidst buttery, toasty accents. It's smooth and easy to drink, and the mouthfeel has a certain oiliness.

2008 VintageTasted: Jul 2011

Chateau Ste. Michelle has become one of the country's largest producers of Chardonnay. There are over half a million cases of this basic, Columbia Valley bottling alone. Spicy and showing some unusual accents—vanilla, licorice, a whiff of barnyard—it also features lots of forward, round, lightly candied fruit.

2009 VintageTasted: Jan 2011

Crisp and spicy, with juicy apple and pear fruit flavor, this easy-drinking Chardonnay was aged sur lie in mostly used barrels. There's a subtle suggestion of vanilla and butter woven into the finish.

2007 VintageTasted: Jan 2009

Here is a solid, widely distributed, well-priced, all-purpose Chardonnay. It's got plenty of buttery toast, soft and round fruit—lightly peachy—and unusual richness for a wine in this price range. It's a California style with a Washington twist—real acid.

2006 VintageTasted: Jan 2008

Following the winery's full-bodied 2005 Columbia Valley bottling, this young Chardonnay tastes stiffer and edgier. Flavors of crisp red apple, toasted nuts and vanilla wafer are all there in abundance, but not yet entirely knit together. It's well-made and offers solid value.

2005 VintageTasted: Jan 2007

Soft and creamy, this is consistent with the previous vintage and sets the stage for the winery's bigger, oakier single-vineyard Chardonnays. Mixed stone fruits, pineapple and an elegant, full-bodied mouthfeel make this particularly appealing for the price. It uses the oak judiciously, and avoids the overdone vanilla flavors that many inexpensive New World Chardonnays rely on.

2004 VintageTasted: Jan 2006

Very soft and buttery, made in a style sure to reach out to a broad base of consumers looking for accessible flavors with lots of oak and tropical fruit. The style feels more Australian than Washington, but it fits in nicely with the winery's expanding lineup of single-vineyard and reserve Chardonnays.

2002 VintageTasted: Jan 2004

Ripe apple and light tropical fruit is swathed in Bourbon-barrel and vanilla flavors; the finish comes on like a dessert dish of bananas flambéed in whiskey. Exuberant, to say the least.

2000 VintageTasted: Jan 2002

A big and friendly wine, with plenty of forward fruit mingling flavors of citrus, apples and pears. There is a nice blast of vanilla too, the only obvious sign of new oak aging, but the impression overall is of crisp, clean elegance. Best Buy.

1999 VintageTasted: Jan 2001

(2001) Nutty, ripe, gently herbaceous fruit on the nose with a layer of sweet, toasty oak. A fine mealiness about the palate and creamy texture; dense with good pear and apple fruit and again a crisp acidity to add finesse.

2003 Vintage

Pleasing pear and light vanilla aromas lead into a nicely textured, lively and distinctly un-flabby chardonnay. This is the least expensive of five chardonnays from Ste. Michelle that all showcase winemaker Bob Bertheau's elegant, light touch. Happily, there is no reliance on buttered popcorn flavors or excessive new toasty oak to make the flavors pop; this is a great food wine, way ahead of most budget bottles from California.

1998 Vintage

Barrel fermented, with toasty highlights. Despite the new oak, it retains its refreshing green-apple and citrus fruit in the tightly wound, concentrated, tart finish. Needs some time in the bottle to smooth the rough edges.

2020 VintageTasted: May 2022

2015 VintageTasted: Jun 2017