In addition to the names mentioned above, including Aubert, Kongsgaard, Liquid Farm, and the Oregon gang (Morgen Long, Kelley Fox, Goodfellow, Walter Scott, among others), all of which are stellar, I would add a plug for 00 Wines.
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No love for Matthiasson?
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Love the wines. Would never put their Chardonnay in a theoretical “Top 10” though. Now their White Wine blend is another story/category.
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I was going to say… Since the OP is new to American chardonnays, people should say something about the style. For example, Aubert is at one end of the style spectrum and Mount Eden and Goodfellow at the other. Listing favorites without some characterization may not be that helpful.
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What are the differences in style between these two particular wines?
Between Aubert and Goodfellow/Mt. Eden?
If that’s it, I would say that Aubert runs full throttle, and is mostly +14%, well executed (hence their presence on quite a number of posts here), a kind of defining richer more mouthfilling wines with modest but nice acidity.
Goodfellow is more crystalline in nature and our abvs for Chardonnay range from 11.5-13.0 with most in the low 12s, with lots of acidity but little screechiness. Plenty of flavor as the fruit is ripe at that point. Texturally more silk than velvet, but the wines are 19-20 months on the lees so there is still richness to the wines. Mt. Eden is also a really lovely and more acid driven lower alcohol style (IMO). Santa Cruz Mountains produce some dynamite Chardonnays in an acid driven style.
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I haven’t seen Paul Lato mentioned. His chard’s are quite good.
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I got a couple of 2019’s at the Vineyard and the 2021’s with their Christmas special release. Don’t remember seeing the Monte Bello normally on their website but I bet if anyone wants to try one they can email and ask. They are really good with age, tasted a 2015 last fall. Holding off on mine for now…
I would add a few to the lists already mentioned. All of these producers make great Chardonnay in a restrained style:
Enfield
Tyler
Lioco
Liquid Farm
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I was waiting for someone to bring up Tyler; his chards and pinot’s are , in my opinion, a nice balance between burgundy and the best of what central coast terrior brings. to be morespecific I would say chablis.
Mount Eden also always delivers, The Santa Cruz appellation is for some reason under appreciated in the wine world;
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Drowned out. Various wine writers were lauding the various subregions as they came online from the mid-19th century to Prohibition, with several producers considered world class and succeeding in blind tastings against top European equivalents, and meeting their prices. Some of the top US producers post-Prohibition were there, too, with national distribution and press through the '80s. Limited production led some to shift to local sales. Some startup wineries wanting to continue to scale up moved to places like Napa.
A lot of the current small wineries are focused on local sales. There were a few funny instances a couple decades ago where a wine forum community discovered a winery focused on local sales, hitting them with a volume of out-of-state cherry picking demand, leaving Mom-and-Pop scratching their heads.
In the late 1800s the San Francisco press was at war over whether Napa Valley or Santa Clara Valley (Santa Cruz Mountains are to Santa Clara Valley as places like Mt Veeder and Diamond Mountain are to Napa) would produce California’s greatest wines.
Today, of course, the Santa Clara Valley is far more famous worldwide than the Napa Valley. But it’s much better known by its nickname, Silicon Valley. And if you could just get rid of those pesky startups like Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Netflix, et al, you could open up a lot of terrific terroir for replanting.
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One to repeat: Ramey Hyde. It is the gold standard for consistency in a moderate style.
One that is unique: Domaine De La Cote Juliet (with age, one of the best combinations of a mineral driven style, yet with california fruit).
One for which I’ll likely take some heat: Kosta Browne One Sixteen. I know that this board despises the hedonstic KB Pinot style (particularly of 10 years ago); however, the KB 1-16 has always been a more restrained style with alcohol typicallly targeting the 13.5 range. I am not sure I would say it is top 10 given the great options above, but 73 posts in, I think it is worth a mention and try.
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Did anyone mention Brewer-Clifton? They should be in this list . . .
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Littorai and Ceritas. Specifically, Charles Heintz Vineyard (they share the same plot).