The 2001 Chardonnay Camelot Bench is an excellent offering. There are 23,000 cases of this rich, ripe white. It offers abundant amounts of tropical fruits, a hint of honeysuckle, and well-integrated spicy oak. Tel. (800) 769-3649; Fax (800) 600-5895

Tropical fruit flavors (particularly papaya) make the wine bright and crisp on the palate. Those same acids prevail over efforts to soften, including barrel and malolactic fermentation and lees aging, so that the wine maintains a steely, hard backbone. It is not lush, but it is intense.——S.H.(12/1/2003)—— 89