100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: A loaded deli sandwich after a hike, or buffalo wings (chicken or cauliflower) with a gorgonzola dip.

Winemaking: The SIP Certified sustainably grown grapes are pressed and fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel to preserve their pure, vibrant character. The wine is aged for seven months, predominantly in stainless steel, to keep it bright and lively, and it is vegan. The 2025 was the second vintage in a row with cooler than average weather and below-average yields.

Vineyards and terroir: Bishop's Peak is named after the ancient volcano that towers over San Luis Obispo and is visible across much of the southern SLO Coast. The wine combines declassified fruit from the Talley family's own vineyards with grapes from trusted local growers along California's Central Coast, and the 2025 carries the Central Coast appellation.

Family and history: Brian and Johnine Talley started Bishop's Peak in 1999 to offer quality wine at an affordable price. The Talley family began farming vegetables in the Arroyo Grande Valley in 1948, planted its first wine grapes in 1982 and released its first estate-bottled wines in 1986; its 2002 Rosemary's Vineyard Chardonnay was judged the best California Chardonnay at the 30th anniversary re-enactment of the Judgment of Paris in 2006. Bishop's Peak is made at Talley Vineyards, with many of the same techniques used for the estate wines, by the women of the Talley team: winemaker Emma Lyon Geers, with Elizabeth Talley, the fourth generation of the family, and Mariah McNulty, who hand-drew the new label.

In the pictures: The Talley family's 1860s adobe below the estate vineyards in the Arroyo Grande Valley (photo: Elizabeth Talley, 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0). Cerro Romauldo, Chumash Peak and Bishop Peak, the wine's namesake, seen from Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo (photo: Basar, 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0). The Talley Vineyards tasting room, overlooking the Rincon Vineyard and the family's vegetable fields (photo: Elizabeth Talley, 2025, CC BY-SA 4.0).