"It exhibits lovely notes of caramelized tropical fruits, lemon oil, orange blossoms, and nectarines."
Rated 94-96 by Robert M. Parker, Jr.,
"The Wine Advocate"
Vintage
2005 is unlike any vintage in recent memory. Early bud break followed by wet, cool spring and cool summer. When the fruit set we witnessed a larger than normal crop, so we dropped more than 20% fruit at all our by-acre vineyard sites. We also dropped more fruit after verasion, hoping and praying the smaller crop would have the blessing of a long Indian summer to ripen. Prayers were answered and we picked into November for many of our wines. Beautiful fruit, mature flavors reflecting a growing season with the longest "hang time" I can remember in 30 years.
Vineyard
This wine is a first for us. This is our first non vineyard designated Chardonnay. This wine comes from several small sites that we had access to in 2005. None of these sites would have been large enough in volume to warrant a bottling of their own so we made the decision to blend them all together. This wine was fermented and aged in barrel on its original lees for almost an entire extra year. The resulting wine is rich and intense to the extreme and shows unlike any Chardonnay we have ever offered before.
Winemaking
We pick all our vineyard sites at first light so the fruit reaches the winery already cool. The Chardonnay grapes are hand sorted to remove any un-ripe berries then transferred whole cluster to a gentle bladder press. Finally, the still cool juice is transferred to small French oak barrels for fermentation. It is important to keep the juice cool on its journey to barrel to prevent oxidation as well as preserve varietal and vineyard character.
Our Chardonnays are 100% barrel fermented using only natural yeasts from the vineyard. Our desire is to never push the wine, but to let it take its own course. This Chardonnay fermented from November 2005 to July 2006 which is a very, very long fermentation.
The Wine
Incredibly intense rich nose of creme brulee, butter, honeysuckle and sweet oak. On the palate this wine is very dense and rich and just spreads across the palate. It shows crushed shells, lemon liqueur, hazelnut and just a touch of smoke. Perhaps most impressive on this wine is its depth as well as intense minerality and length. This is a wine that simply does not quit.