Waypoint house spotlight
The Waypoint house film from the Melka and Sands cellar, the St. Helena project that bottles this Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2022 Waypoint Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard Russian River Valley across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $49.56 and the average is $49.56. Our slash is $49.00.
2022 Waypoint Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard Russian River Valley, USA
Melka and Sands' Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay from Kent Ritchie's Goldridge bench, a 2022 you can open at forty-nine dollars.
The 2022 Waypoint is 100 percent Chardonnay from Ritchie Vineyard in Russian River Valley: orchard fruit, citrus, toasted hazelnut, and a flint line from Goldridge sand and fog, now $49.
Ritchie Chardonnay with the vineyard on the label
Kent Ritchie has farmed this Russian River bench for more than fifty years. Sandy Goldridge soil, a sloping bench toward the river, fog that keeps acidity. Waypoint bottles the site as a small-lot Chardonnay, not a generic Sonoma white. Neutral oak is a frame. Orchard fruit and citrus stay in front. This is the bottle that argues a landmark vineyard can still be forty-nine dollars.
The house
Waypoint is Philippe Melka and Matt Sands sourcing small lots from Northern California sites, based in St. Helena.
The vineyard
Ritchie is a Goldridge bench Kent Ritchie has tended for decades. Fog, sand, old Chardonnay fame.
The wine
100% Chardonnay. Orchard fruit, citrus, hazelnut, flint. Oak as seasoning, not a butter speech.
The drinker
Serve 48 to 52 F. No long decant. Roast chicken or pan-seared scallops.
Apple and peach, then lemon, hazelnut, and flint
Ritchie Chardonnay from this house reads as orchard fruit and citrus over toasted hazelnut and a wet-stone close. The Goldridge bench and evening fog keep the line tight. Oak is texture. The vineyard is the flavor.
A compressed Sonoma white year after a dry winter, spring rain, then August heat. Ritchie's fog and Goldridge sand are why a 2022 Chardonnay from this bench can still show citrus and stone beside ripe orchard fruit.
Golden apple, white peach, Meyer lemon, honeyed pear, toasted hazelnut, vanilla.
Orchard richness, Goldridge minerality, fog acidity, a careful oak frame.
Flint, citrus zest. Serve 48 to 52 F. No long decant.
Site first, oak as a frame
Waypoint wants Ritchie to speak. The vineyard is sandy Goldridge on a sloping bench, fog at night, old Chardonnay rows Kent Ritchie has farmed since 1972. Melka and Sands treat it as a small-lot white: fruit and stone in front, oak for texture, no butter costume.
Ritchie is famous because the soil and the fog do the work before the cellar. Waypoint names that vineyard on the label.
Serve 48 to 52 F. A few minutes in the glass lets hazelnut settle with peach and lemon.
Kent Ritchie's bench, a St. Helena quest
Ritchie Vineyard is one of the names Waypoint was built to bottle. The Chardonnay made the site famous. Melka and Sands put that name on this 2022.
Waypoint follows great sites. Ritchie sits on the Waypoint vineyard page beside Starscape, Fort Ross, and Bien Nacido.
Kent Ritchie planted here in 1972. Sandy Goldridge, a sloping bench to the river, fog that keeps Chardonnay alive.
The 2022 names the vineyard. That is the authority in the glass.
Roast chicken, then scallops
Ritchie Chardonnay wants roast bird and a hard sear on scallops. Lemon and skin take the citrus. Browned butter takes the hazelnut.
Two plates. One roast chicken. One pan of scallops.
Serve 48 to 52 F. No long decant. A few minutes lets oak texture settle.
Roast chicken
High-heat roast, lemon, thyme, garlic.
Why it works: Roast fat and lemon echo citrus while acidity cuts the skin.
View Recipe for roast chicken (opens in a new tab)
Pan-seared scallops
Hard brown crust, lemon butter.
Why it works: Sweet scallop and browned butter match stone fruit.
View Recipe for pan-seared scallops (opens in a new tab)Put Ritchie Chardonnay in the cart
Melka and Sands, Kent Ritchie's Goldridge bench, a named vineyard. Forty-nine dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is Ritchie Chardonnay with stone and citrus, not a generic Sonoma white.
