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crushed stone, lime rind, lemon-honey
lemon curd, salt caramel, white smoke
dungeoness w/ ginger sauce, duck confit salad
VINIFICATION
15 tons hand picked on Sept 24. 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.
SITE
a true marine climate, situated 10 miles from san pablo bay to the south east of sonoma. a 1980's planting of chardonnay clone 4 in “haire series" soils-- a sandy loam transitioning to sandy clay subsoil. these shallow, low moisture soils stress the vines which shoot their roots deep into the clay in search of water. vineyard well tended to by the ricci family.
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| 3.91 |
4.81 g/l |
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| 0.03 g/l |
22.7 |
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the vintage year 2009 was long and cool--so cool in fact that there was some question about ripeness. normally in carneros this is not an issue. the challenge is “picking in the window”—those precious few days when grape sugars and acid are in balance. if you pick too early (which admittedly is rare for california winemakers) you can end up with green flavors and aromas in the wine. if you’re too late, by even a day or two, you’ll end up with ponderous, super ripe chardonnay. the benefit of working the same plot of land each year is the rapport built with the vines, and with the farmer. what we learned in 2008 was that harvesting just slightly riper fruit from this site tips the fruit profile from citrus (preferred) to tropical. so in late september when our viticulturalist advised against harvesting this "still green" chardonnay, we sided with our wine maker who insisted the higher acid, savory-fruited chardonnay was ready to go. we harvested on september 24--weeks ahead of other wine makers in the area. once the wine began to ferment, filling the cellar with glorious aroma, we knew we had chosen wisely. the tank of 09 chardonnay carneros was the surprise star of the cellar this year. a racy, urgently mineral, full-throttle carneros chardonnay. lesson learned: there is no science for measuring grape readiness. it is 100% subjective.
| kevin kelley |
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| now through 2017+ |
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