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Wine Details
Price:
$24.00 per bottle
Description:
This was another exceptional year, and the new millennium appears to be off to a spectacular start. The Chardonnay was picked on September 28, at 25 degrees brix, T.A. .85. As usual with our Chardonnay, the wine was cold fermented with seclected yeasts for the first, active phase, then moved to new and one year old French oak, all of which is coopered in the Cote de Nuit from three-year air dried wood. During the fall the wine was racked several times as we do not like the overly buttery flavors imparted by sur lies aging. After 10 months in French oak, and another 10 months in stainless steel, it was bottled in the spring of 2004. This vintage has produced a big, very accessible wine that displays strong varietal fruit flavors, emphasizing the citrus/melon spectrum, with suggestions of caramel and vanilla imparted by the oak. There is an excellent balance of clean, fresh fruit, oak, and mouth-filling richness. And, as with all our Chardonnays, it will age for many years.
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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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