AROMA: yellow apple, pie crust, quartz
FLAVOR: nectarine, white miso, ginger tea
FOOD PAIRINGS: French omelette, scallop roll, cauliflower gratin
VINIFICATION: 9 tons hand-harvested between Aug 31` and Sept 14. Berries were destemmed and gently crushed before going to press. All lots fermented on wild yeasts and aged seperately for 10 months in 600L neutral oak puncheons, before being racked off the lees to steel for an additional 6 months. A slow malolactic fermentation completed. Cross-flow filtered prior to bottling.
SITE: This wine is made from a selection of our favorite Russian River vineyards. All sites are situated 10-15 miles from the coast, with gravelly loam + sandstone soils planted to Clone 4, Dijon 95 + 96, and Curtis clone . This growing region is distinguished by its complex relationship with the cold Pacific Ocean, omnipresent fog, ancient redwoods, + the Russian River itself.
NOTES: The 2022 Estero is the best version of this wine we have ever bottled. And I hope we never bottle another one like it. You know those difficult years in Burgundy when all the 1er Cru fruit get's declassified into the Bourgogne Blanc, and the Bourgogne Blanc punches way above its weight class? During the extreme 2022 harvest, a heat dome was bearing down on the state. And we were encouraged to declassify most of our Vineyard Designate fruit into Estero. Cost of Goods be damned. So our little AVA bottling of Chardonnay was the recipient of not only our best, stalwart holdings in the RRV from Burnside Road and Piner, but also barrels of prized Tidal Break and Casa Seca. The resulting wine just has a couple of extra gears in the gearbox. It is opulent to be sure, but it's still on brand—which is to say still fresh, mineral, and complicated in the best way possible. We love this wine and drink bottles of it at home
