Palate
With Golden Delicious apples, yellow peaches, musk melon, and honey on the nose and through to the palate, the medium acidity is balanced by pleasant fleshiness, finishing very clean with a hint of minerality. Refreshing and with moderate alcohol, this wine is all about pleasure, begging to be drunk up, with some oysters or a roast chicken and a big smile.
Growing Conditions
In 2011 we leased the Linda Vista Vineyard behind our house. Leasing the vineyard and farming it ourselves gave us the control to feel comfortable making a challenging variety like Chardonnay, where crafting “balance” means walking the razor’s edge between under-ripe and over-ripe.
Harvest
For complexity, completeness, and balance, we achieved a diversity of ripeness by harvesting the fruit at five different times during the ripening period. The earlier harvests contributed acidity and minerality, and the later harvests contributed flesh and richness. The earliest pick is incredibly zingy, while the latest pick is nutty and honeyed. Everything was blended together.
Winemaking
We whole-cluster pressed all of the grapes, settled in tank for 24 hours, then fermented and aged the wine in neutral barrels. To preserve the high-toned and citrusy notes we kept half the barrels unstirred, and for a touch of creaminess we stirred the other half of the barrels just once. We allowed two-fifths of the barrels to go through malolactic fermentation. The wine was never racked, fined, or cold-stabilized, but since it is partially ML negative it was filtered before bottling.
