Chamisal winemaker Fintan du Fresne who hails from New Zealand, where unoaked Chardonnay is quite commonplace said he thinks today's U.S. wine drinkers get what the Stainless name means.

WSJ: Comeback: Rediscover Chardonnay | On Wine by Lettie Teague

The last was a soft, lush and ripe wine made even more memorable by its packaging (a gray ceramic bottle that one friend said "looked like a bomb that you'd light with a fuse and throw" making perhaps the first unoaked Chardonnay Molotov cocktail).

WSJ: Comeback: Rediscover Chardonnay | On Wine by Lettie Teague

In no particular order, our favorites included the fresh and citrusy 2011 Paul Hobbs CrossBarn Sonoma Coast, the lively 2011 Chamisal Stainless Central Coast, the complex 2010 Ramey Russian River Valley as well as the elegant 2010 Etude Carneros, the 2011 Williams Selyem Unoaked Chardonnay and the 2011 Mer Soleil Silver.

WSJ: Comeback: Rediscover Chardonnay | On Wine by Lettie Teague