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| Demuth |
Anderson Valley |
Mendocino |
white flowers, citrus oil, rock dust.
poached pear, orange sherbert, mineral.
herb roasted chicken, saffron risotto, himachi.
VINIFICATION
hand picked on october 11th. intensive hand-sorting performed. whole cluster pressed. cold fermented in stainless steel tanks (no oak) using a wild yeast. naturally occurring malolactic fermentation. 6-month fine lees contact. bottled without fining or filtration.
SITE
a mountain top vineyard at 1600 feet looking down on the anderson valley. wente clone chardonnay planted on original rootstock (1982 axr-1). soil type is shallow layer of clay on top of fractured rock. intense daily temperature fluctuations of 40 degrees. extreme climate produces late harvest dates (4-weeks later than valley floor) and naturally low yields.
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| 3.58 |
6.2 g/l |
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| 0.02 g/l |
23.2 |
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we had come to this windswept mountain top in search of pinot noir. eric demuth was our host and guide, and together we set out on foot to look at his vineyard. to reach the pinot noir, we had to pass directly through his chardonnay block---a stressed out parcel of old-vines on what looked like original rootstock. the vines were pushing through tough rocky soil reminding me of the better pouilly fuisse sites above the maconnais village of vergisson. our inquiry into this curious chardonnay revealed the following: the vines were 30+ years old. they were in fact on original axr-1 rootstock. and they were hanging the prestigious wente chardonnay clone. the stress induced by tough soil and the exposed appreciably colder aspect meant the vineyard produced tiny yields. and were we interested?? needless to say, we never made it to the pinot noir block. tasting this wine from tank was a revelation. we had happened upon a truly compelling chardonnay site and were poised to make a irrefutably terroir-driven wine. postscript: in the fall of 2008, we received a call from the vineyard manager. our unspoken fears had been manifest: the vineyard had contracted phylloxera and was dying. axr-1’s susceptibility to the prodigious vine louse meant it was only a matter of time. in 2010, these hearty old-vines will be torn out and replanted. and we will likely move on.
| kevin kelley |
225 |
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| now through 2015+ |
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