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A pure, laser-focused Chardonnay with aromas of lemon, lime, citrus blossom and wet sand. Sleek and mouthwatering, it brings ripe white peach, pear and pomelo with a saline, sea-spray edge, finishing long and precise with lime zest and minerality.
Available in store
Close100% Chardonnay
Food pairings: Raw oysters and other shellfish, ceviche, seared scallops, grilled prawns, Dungeness crab, halibut and other delicate white fish, sushi and sashimi, roast chicken and fresh goat cheese salads.
Winemaking: Diatom presents Chardonnay in its most transparent form, with no oak and no malolactic conversion to preserve the wine's natural tension, saline character and linear precision. The 2024 was fermented at very low temperatures in small stainless-steel tanks for eight weeks, and malolactic fermentation was inhibited; even the hoses used to move the wine are kept short, all for precision and focus. Greg Brewer describes the approach as the pursuit of subtraction and refinement, like polishing a grain of rice until one reaches its ultimate inner core. The wines are made with long life in mind and can age gracefully for a decade or more.
Vineyards and terroir: The 2024 comes entirely from the Mission Hills Vineyard in the Los Alamos Valley of Santa Barbara County, from Chardonnay clones 4, 17, 72 and Mount Eden, harvested from the end of September to mid-November. Santa Barbara County's east–west mountain ranges, pushed into place by the collision of tectonic plates, open its valleys to the cool Pacific, and its soils formed from ancient ocean sediments give the wines their savory, saline character. Diatom is named for diatomaceous earth, the fossilized plankton found in this oceanic landscape. The winery is a Certified California Sustainable Winery.
Family and history: Greg Brewer began as a French instructor at UC Santa Barbara and learned winemaking at Santa Barbara Winery from 1991. He co-founded Brewer-Clifton with Steve Clifton in 1996, was the founding winemaker at Melville from 1997 to 2015, and helped map and establish the Sta. Rita Hills appellation. He created Diatom to focus on starkly raised Chardonnay. In 2017 Brewer-Clifton joined Jackson Family Wines, which today also produces Diatom. Greg was named Winemaker of the Year in 2020, the first from Santa Barbara County to receive the honor, and the 2026 Sta. Rita Hills Vintner of the Year.
In the pictures: Greg Brewer at work during harvest in the winery (photo: Diatom / Jackson Family Wines, press image). Winemaker Greg Brewer (photo: Diatom / Jackson Family Wines, press image).
