There are 1,000 cases of the 1997 Chardonnay Sbragia Limited Release. Given 100% new French oak aging, it represents Chardonnay at its richest and most intense. When I recently served my last bottle of 1994 Sbragia Limited Release, my guests went ga-ga over the wine's intensity and hedonistic qualities. The 1997 offers a knock-out nose of buttered corn, and ripe citrus fruit intermixed with roasted nuts and toast scents. Unctuously-textured, full-bodied, and powerful, this is a smashingly rich, lavishly endowed, exotic, ostentatious Chardonnay during its first 4-5 years of life. The Private Reserve and the Sbragia Limited Release are the flagship Beringer Chardonnays. Release date, 4/99. Tel. (707) 963-7115; Fax (707) 963-1735

Ed Sbragia has been crafting the wines at Beringer for a long time, and this is his signature Chardonnay. A complex, perfumed nose of apples, earth, hazelnuts and spices makes you linger before drinking. Full-bodied yet elegant and impeccably balanced, the wine coats the palate with apple, spice and toasty oak flavors. The finish is beautiful. I’d want my name on it, too, if I made it.——M.M.(11/15/1999)—— 94