Mer Soleil wines

Part of the Wagner Family of high quality wine producing sites, Chuck Wagner started planting vines in the Santa Lucia Highlands in 1988, outside of the Napa Valley. Located in Monterey County, the growing conditions are ideal for the Mer Soleil Chardonnay and the Silver Chardonnay, with cooling sea breezes and lots of sunshine - this promotes early ripening and luscious fruit that creates these 2 fantastic Chardonnays.

The vineyard is now run by Chuck's eldest son, Charlie F. Wagner II. Having worked along side his father, Charlie is an innovator when it comes to wine. He continuously looks for new ways to make their wines even better. This is how Silver was born. Mer Soleil is the classic Californian Chardonnay - rich, smooth, buttery and oak aged. Fermented and aged in French oak barrels, and a portion receiving malolactic fermentation, the wine is then aged for 12-15 months prior to bottling. Hand stirring of the barrels captures the very essence of the wine and helps to develop a creamy textural component. Silver is the opposite - unoaked, fermented in cement and steel tanks but an equally high quality wine. This innovative thinking carries on continuously as new wines are developed and perfected.

The Wagner family have always placed a lot of emphasis on the farming processes, preferring to intervene as little as possible and rotating crops when possible. In Monterey, they also farm 100 acres of lemons and the citrus aroma is often present in the wines.

8700 Conn Creek Road,

Rutherford, CA 94573

The Wagner family

The Wagner family of wines also includes top quality vineyards such as Caymus, Belle Glos and Conundrum amongst others.