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Wine Details
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Description:
Kongsgaard Napa Valley Chardonnay is grown primarily on the shy-bearing Kongsgaard family vineyard described above. This vineyard gives the wine its dense, minerally core and extravagant honeyed aroma. Small amounts of wine made from two distinguished Carneros vineyards, Hudson and Hyde, are included in the blend, bringing stone fruit and citrus high-notes to the wine. Like The Judge, the Napa Valley Chardonnay is allowed to ferment in new French barrels without any human intervention other that the weekly stirring by hand - no yeast, no bacteria, no fining, no filtration. The Kongsgaard barrel fermentation cellar could probably be mistaken for one in Burgundy in the nineteenth century.
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Varietal Definition
Chardonnay:
Chardonnay is by far the most widely planted grape crop in California and dominates California’s cooler, coastal, quality wine regions. The natural varietal ‘taste and smell’ of Chardonnay is surprisingly unfamiliar to many wine drinkers, as its true character is often guised with dominating winemaking signatures. Chardonnay’s rather subdued primary fruit characteristics lean toward the crisp fruitiness of apples, pears and lemon, but the variety’s full body is capable of supporting a host of complementary characteristics, such as oak, butter and vanilla. Regardless of what is the appropriate style for Chardonnay, the varietal continues to dominate vineyard plantings in every corner of the world. Close attention to clonal selection has made this broad geographic and climactic range of Chardonnay viable in thoughtful viticultural hands.
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