If you’re stocking up on quality mid-priced white wines for hot summer days, try adding 2014 Smoke Tree Chardonnay to your cellar.  This wine was discovered during weekly grocery shopping at Diablo Foods in downtown Lafayette, CA. Family owned and operated, Diablo Foods is currently celebrating 48 years in business and offers the best produce, meats and customer service in the East Bay’s Walnut Creek-Lafayette-Orinda-Moraga area, plus an impressive selection of wines.

Diablo Foods retails 2014 Smoke Tree Sonoma County Chardonnay at $17 and tags it as one of their best values on the shelf. It is a lighter Chardonnay with no oak, but has a soft minerality and pleasant influences of tree fruits (apple, peach). It is best served on the colder side, making it an excellent summer sipping wine.

Smoke Tree is a Moet-Hennessy USA brand produced at their Domain Chardon facility in Yountville, Napa Valley. The brand has, so far, released Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with grapes sourced from undisclosed vineyards in Sonoma County. For more information, check out this SF Gate review from September 2015.

Diablo Foods: 3615 Mount Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette, CA 94549