Sold Out
"Moderate golden yellow color in the glass. Terrific aromatics, offering scents of honey, apple, spice, and a hint of butter and oak. Very classy with brisk acidity, offering juicy flavors of lemon and apple with a bit of nut oil. The lip-smacking and lifted finish goes on and on and leaves an memorable impression. Score: 94"
This is a cooler climate Chardonnay and it shows by way of the leanness, bright acidity and vibrant minerality from the soils of the Hawk Hill Vineyards. The racy acidity, tones of grapefruit and lemon zest show best when chilled, and soften beautifully as the wine comes to ambient temperature where the wine shows hints of butter and fine oak with good viscosity on the finish.
Three week primary fermentation, malolactic fermentation over 5 months. Aged 10 months in French oak barrels, 22% new and 78% neutral. The wine remained on its lees during malolactic fermentation without stirring, and eventually racked off the lees to allow for natural clarification of the wine two months before bottling.
This single vineyard Chardonnay has more in common with Chablis than your typical California Chardonnay. There are 7 acres of Chardonnay vines planted primarily to clone 5, with a small amount of Old Wente-Hyde selection interplants. The fruit was harvested by hand, at night, to assure it would arrive at the winery cold.