Which "majors" chardonnay to you recommend? I like dry.
Do you really? Everyone says they like dry whites (except a few women who admit they like it 'a little sweet'), but most people will pick wines with a fair amount of residual sugar.
After almost 50 years of drinking mostly California whites, when I want a not terribly expensive dry chardonnay, I drink real simple Chablis from a reputable shipper or if it doesn't have to be that dry, a good Macon Villages. It's not that such wines can't be made in California (though Chablis can't quite be matched), but rather that very dry, crisp style is not popular in California. And, the French wines are far better values, at least on the East Coast. Used to be you could get wines like that in California - of course the Hanzell was like a big white burgundy, but for many years Wente made a very nice clean crisp chardonnay.
It's really hard to recommend wines, because everyone's taste is different. There are only two things to know about wine tasting, one is simple, the other deceptively difficult:
1. Pull a lot of corks (i.e. try a lot of things).
2. Remember what you taste (develop a taste memory, take notes).
Very few people have reliable taste memories. Mine is only fair these days. My grandfather had a legendary taste memory - he could vividly describe wines he'd tasted before 1900 in ways that others who knew those wines said was remarkably accurate. He remembered everything he tasted, even bad wines; it was very enjoyable to taste with him, especially as he would describe how a wine was developing over time in the tank, then in barrel, and in bottle over time.