Our clone 95 Napa Valley Chardonnay vineyard occupies the western-most portion of our acreage in Carneros on a slight slope facing east — planted in a deep and well-drained sandy loam haire soil to a north-south configuration on a vertically-shoot positioned trellis. As with all our grapes, the fruit is picked by hand at dawn and sorted prior to crush. Chardonnay is whole-cluster pressed to mostly new French oak barrels for a native primary fermentation, followed by malo-lactic fermentation in oak. The wine ages 18 months with minimal bâtonnage.
The 2023 Chardonnay has a lightly green-tinted yellow-gold color, with white-rose floral and tropical fruit notes. Medium-full bodied, with bright and full tropical fruit notes, peaches and vanilla on the nose, leading to fresh Fuji apple, pineapple juice, anise, jasmine, lemongrass and coconut cream on the weightless finish.