With The Chronicle’s annual Top 100 Wines coming this weekend, we wanted to give you a preview of this year’s themes and some of my top selections. Today we’re providing an advance peek at the featured white wines. One of the slight changes to this year’s Top 100: While for several years I’ve featured one wine from each category, I haven’t explained why that wine happened to land the extra attention. This year, we decided to put those wines in a bit more context — to explain what made them especially distinctive among the thousands of wines I taste each year. Other wines may have impressed me equally, but each of these both stood out as particularly unique and represented a defining theme in the current state of West Coast winemaking. As I go through the long process of trimming the list to size — from more than 200 contenders to about 150, then 120, then 105, and then the last few painful cuts — certain wines remain obvious choices. Each of these was a standout at the start, and their gleam never dimmed.

How did white wines fare this year? The final tally shows about as many whites as in 2013. Chardonnay again composed the largest single block: 13 wines. Beyond that, it’s again a diverse roster — although this year’s surprise hit turned out to be Chenin Blanc, a sign of that grape finally making its way back into especially talented hands. We combined sparkling wines this year with rosés and other assorted wines, and we’ll consider them in today’s list. where to buy wine in londonAll told these categories account for just under 40 wines.age good wine guide Chardonnay2012 Enfield Heron Lake Vineyard Wild Horse Valley Chardonnay ($36, 13.1% alcohol): Not that I wasn’t impressed with his white wines when I named John Lockwood a Winemaker to Watch in January. best wine gifts for christmas

But his reds seemed more compelling at the time. Then I got to know a bit more about this very unique vineyard, tucked between Napa and Solano counties. When it came time to taste his latest vintage, I couldn’t help but be impressed by Lockwood’s skill at finessing a modern, pure style of Chardonnay — the right frame to showcase a truly special bit of land. Other Whites2012 Sandlands Amador County Chenin Blanc ($24, 12.8%): Readers will recall the introduction to Tegan Passalacqua’s Sandlands label earlier this year.best wine delivery uk When it became clear that Chenin Blanc was one of the Top 100’s sleeper hits, it seemed only right to pay homage to one of that grape’s greatest defenders on any continent. what is the best red wine with fishPassalacqua’s recently released 2012 shows Chenin’s full depth when made with intent and grown on interesting soils (here the decomposed granite of Amador’s Story vineyard). best wine georgia

The Sandlands wines are already in short supply, so drink this without hesitation if you locate a bottle. Sparkling/Rosé/Other2010 Analemma Atavus Vineyard Blanc de Noirs Columbia Gorge Sparkling ($56, 12.7%): I’ve waited more than two years for this wine to be released, which it was this fall. Steven Thompson and Kris Fade make exceptional still wines in the Columbia Gorge, and they used this 1960s vineyard on the gorge’s Washington side for their sparkling debut — a stunning expression of Pinot Noir that, along with a handful of other bottles, marks a major step up for small-scale artisanship in American sparkling wine. wine in a cup to goThey aged it for four years; best red wine regions in the worldclearly they wanted to get it right.the best wine new zealand

In the same way that grower Champagnes have been revolutionizing that region’s winemaking and quality benchmarks, wines like Analemma’s stand to make us reconsider how sparkling wines can venerate West Coast terroir rather than mimic Champagne’s traditions of scale.in Sunday’s print edition; You can find last year’s Top 100 Wines here.  And Chronicle members can join me December 17 for an exclusive talk and tasting with several Top 100 winemakers.2014 Jerome Reserve Pinot noir•  Top 100 Cellar Selections - Wine Enthusiast •  Top 100 Washington Wines - Seattle Met •  Top 100 Washington Wines - Seattle Times •  Top 100 of the Year's "Most Desirable" Wines - Wine Enthusiast •  Year's Best Cabernet Blends - Wine & Spirits •  "A superb estate" - Wine Advocate •  Outstanding Washington Reds - Wine Spectator •  Star Producer, Best of the Best - Food & Wine's  Wine Guide •  Best Washington White Bordeaux inspired blend - Seattle Magazine

•  The Most Outstanding Wines of the Year - The Tasting Panel •  Top 20 Washington State Wineries - Paul Gregutt's “Washington Wines and Wineries” •  "Buty is the producer of a range of great wines" - Travel & Leisure •  "One of Washington's most awesome boutique wineries" - Best Wines Online •  "One of Washington State's best producers" - Leslie Sbrocco •  "Their wines are superb" - Jancis Robinson & Linda Murphy "American Wine" •  Six Best New Washington Chardonnays - The Classics - Seattle Magazine For magnum and half bottle formats of Buty wines, please click here. For your added pleasure, we are happy to include complimentary UPS Ground shipping on all orders of twelve bottles or more (mixed cases allowed)! For first access to our most limited single-vineyard, and winery-direct offerings, we invite you to become a Friend of the BEAST. A Trio of Treasures from the Buty Library Sémillon, Sauvignon & Muscadelle 2015