Nose
A mosaic of fruit aromas including pineapple, peach, passion fruit and mango.
Palate
Beginning with a focused entry, each sip displays flavors of
toasted brioche, lemon curd, fresh baked pastry and toasted almond. The mid-palate
has bright acidity along with good weight, power and texture. The long finish leaves
behind lingering tastes of fine oak tannins. Silhouette is always an age-worthy white
wine, and will gain complexity over the next 5-10 years.
Growing Conditions
Silhouette is our limited production, top white wine. Each vintage, our very best
Chardonnay fruit goes into the Silhouette bottling. For the 2014 vintage, the wine is
comprised of grapes grown on our Stanly Ranch Estate Vineyard and the neighboring Hyde Vineyard in Carneros.
With the South Napa earthquake and ongoing drought making it a unique agricultural landscape, vintners are using words like “quality”, “depth of flavor” and “excellent” to describe expectations for the 2014 vintage in Napa Valley. Despite the curve balls from Mother Nature, the weather was generally perfect at the right times, leading to an abundant and strong crop.
From our standpoint, 2014 was an incredible vintage for Chardonnay in Napa. Despite an early harvest the fruit had incredible acidity and ripeness. The cool weather of August was perfect to slowly ripen the fruit and bring complexity and concentration into the berries.
Harvest
Harvest started and ended earlier than usual. The first grapes were picked on July 30th and nearly all harvest activity was completed by the third week of October, a full two weeks ahead of normal harvest schedule for most wineries.
Winemaking
The grapes for Silhouette were handpicked at peak ripeness, and hand sorted before a gentle whole cluster pressing. We were able to achieve slow, cool native primary and malolactic fermentations with extended lees contact that enhanced the beautiful aromas provided by Mother Nature.
Aging
The wine was aged for 18 months on full lies in 60% new Burgundy barrels from Oaks selected from the central and eastern of France; only racked once.
Appearance
Golden straw in color.
