Nose
The nose is attractive and ripe, made of clean stone fruit flavors and vibrant citrus notes.
Palate
The silky texture and the long, crisp, fruit-filled finish complete our wine, un-obscured by
oak.
Growing Conditions
Planning our wine from the start, we cane pruned in February, then shoot thinned in May,
cluster thinned at verasion to promote concentration in the fruit early in the year. The
shaded fruit and small crop support the elegance and concentration in our wine even in
the coolest vintage in 30 years.
Harvest
The June 21st flowering was late and afforded us a ripe harvest on Sept 29th at dawn. We
finished harvest 3 days later with the clone #95 chardonnay. The block ‘89 was
classically ripe 23.2 and clone #95 was 21.5 brix, with pHs of 3.2 and organic acids of
10g/L.
Bottling
We bottled on July 20, 2011.
Winemaking
We hand sorted clusters and then both whole cluster pressed some and crushed the
other blocks of chardonnay by a unique method I designed to allow for greater extraction
and texture in the wine. The raw juice fermented in mature Burgundy barrels and was
lees stirred with partial malolactic. We do not alter the juice with finings or additions of
acid or water. Instead, we grow our fruit to balance the natural juice acids so that our
wine needs no additions. This rich and vibrant, acidic and silky style is the hallmark of
our chardonnay. Buty white wines are naturally heat and cold stable between
45 F to 90 F.
