Clean Chardonnay

Waterbrook has been making wine in Walla Walla long enough to have collected over 160 ninety-point scores, and the Clean line takes that same cellar work and pulls the alcohol out at the end. The Chardonnay keeps the shape of the original. Fragrant tree fruit on the nose, Golden Delicious apple and a note of local honey, then hints of oak and vanilla closing things out, which is more structure than most alcohol-free whites manage to hold. It finishes at less than 0.5% alcohol by volume. John Freeman has led the winemaking here since 2005, after seven years at Franciscan and five as cellar master at Miner Family in California, and he treats oak as a spice rack rather than a headline, so the barrel character sits behind the fruit instead of on top of it. Serve it cold with roast chicken or a soft cheese.