Russian River Valley

2015 Chardonnay Reserve 1.5L

Storms in late winter filled the soil with water that the vines would need in a few months. Warm days in late winter and early spring induced the Chardonnay into bud break a little earlier than normal. The crop turned out to be small, compared to the last few years. The weather alternated between cool periods and warm through the summer, with a few heat spikes making the sugars climb at an accelerated pace. This was the first time in many years picking a few tons of fruit from our Chalk Hill Arata Chardonnay specifically for our Reserve Chardonnay, and we weren’t disappointed. The clone 15 Chardonnay from Chalk Hill Arata, picked on August 17, provided the fresh acidity and green apple flavors to counterbalance the richness from the clone 76 Chardonnay off our Garfield block in the Santa Rosa Plain. Our 2015 Reserve Chardonnay was aged in less new French oak barrels than past vintages, but also for a few months longer, in order to showcase the terroir to a higher degree, but still keep the richness that barrel fermenting and aging imparts.