Tasting Notes

Decadent Meyer lemon crème pie, toasted hazelnut, and baked Asian pear flavors evolve beautifully across the palate in our remarkably rich Reserve Chardonnay. Its creaminess is lifted by both the vibrant purity of the fruit and the wine’s bright acidity; its elegantly rich lemon and pear flavors seem to glide across the palate endlessly in a luxuriously long finish. 100% Chardonnay

Vineyard Notes

With its cooling marine influences, the southern Carneros region is home to some of Napa Valley’s finest Chardonnays. For the 2015 Reserve, we hand selected fruit from the appellation’s renowned Hyde ranch. The region’s climate, combined with clay loam soils, provides ideal conditions for the development of deeply flavored Chardonnay.

Production Notes

2015 started warmer and drier than usual, without a drop of rain in January. The dry conditions continued well into April with some early irrigation in the vineyards. A cooler May reduced fruit set and provided the first signs of a lighter crop for the vintage. The harvest brought in fruit at optimal flavor maturity before a series of heat waves hit the valley. Overall, the 2015 harvest is one of the earliest on record. The grapes for our Chardonnay Reserve were picked between September 1st to September 11th.

Winemaker Notes

We hand-harvested our selected Chardonnay grapes into one-half ton bins at daybreak and gently pressed them as whole clusters to retain fruity flavors and delicacy. A slow, cool native-yeast fermentation took place in 100% Burgundian-style barrels for fruit and oak integration, and enhanced mouth feel. One hundred percent of the barrels were French oak, eighty-one percent (81%) new, adding layers of complexity. As the new wine underwent malolactic fermentation, we began stirring each barrel twice a week, re-suspending the yeast lees to gradually build in greater creaminess and further enrich the texture. When the wine reached optimal balance of fruit and oak influence, it was blended and transferred to neutral barrels with the lees to continue aging for a total of eight (8) months. The wine was bottled in October of 2016.