Nose
A nose of Key lime, lemon,
paraffin, fresh cut wildflowers, and just a touch of caramel.
Palate
Citrus flavors continue
on the fresh and focused palate, with Meyer lemon joined by apple and pear, and a
slight hint of honeycomb providing a surprising lushness. Floral and stonefruit linger
on the pleasantly long and round finish.
Growing Conditions
Carneros is renowned for stellar Chardonnay, so although our project is focused on
Pinot, we couldn’t resist planting a small block of Chardonnay. The selection of Old
Wente Chardonnay came to us as budwood from the Winery Lake and Larry Hyde
vineyards. It’s a charming field selection, yielding a host of aromas and flavors from
classic apple to banana to floral, including the occasional heady perfume of a musqué
cluster.
Harvest
By 2015 California was well into its five-year drought, and we saw essentially no rain during the summer
and fall. Following the trend of 2014, budbreak was very early, and the season was well underway by
mid-March. Growers were fortunate with similar conditions in 2014, but in 2015 our luck ran out and
the early flowering in April coincided with some very unsettled weather. Seesawing temperatures, high
winds, and abrupt changes from foggy and cloudy to sunny and calm were frequent for nearly six weeks.
These wild swings led to shatter as flowering was interrupted, and some vineyards saw crops reduced by
as much as 75%. At Donum we were relatively fortunate, averaging only about 20% loss across all
blocks. This weather gave way to a fairly mild and even summer until August, when heat spikes returned
and we saw several spikes in which temperatures approached triple digits. This can lead to some difficult
picking decisions, as it is always risky to leave crop that is almost ripe hanging through such extreme heat.
Once again we were perhaps more fortunate than some of our colleagues, and our ripening schedule
lined-up such that we were able to harvest some blocks just before each heat spike, while the rest were
able to hang through the heat. Overall the quality was very high in 2015, and the wines have plenty of
structure indicating they should age well.
Bottling
We tasted through and selected our top fifteen barrels, which were blended in tank and
bottled in January of 2017.
Winemaking
Our 2015 Chardonnay was fermented in French oak barrels, with 40% in new barrels, as well as one new
500L puncheon. The fermentation used native yeast and took place in the coolest part of the cellar, at
about 55 degrees, resulting in a slow, even fermentation lasting nearly 5 weeks. At the end of primary
fermentation, malolactic fermentation was prevented in order to preserve freshness and vitality.
Aging
The barrels were stirred approximately once a month for four months to allow additional lees contact to
soften the mouthfeel. After that the wine was allowed to settle, and aged another 10 months in barrel.
Appearance
The 2015 Estate Chardonnay in pale gold in color.
