Nose
The most complex of all our chardonnay vineyards, the 2014
Carneros is wonderfully intriguing with its mix of gun smoke,
chalk dust and preserved lemon, fresh fig and brioche aromatics.
Palate
The palate is bright, intense and full bodied with grapefruit and
a touch of vanilla complementing the savory match stick and
mineral characters of the vineyard. The complex and distinct
personality of the wine is matched by its great persistence.
Growing Conditions
We purchased our Carneros vineyard decades ago and have
performed some crazy practices over its 40 years of life including
at one point re orientating the vineyard 90 degrees by twisting
the existing vines and then inter planting with younger vines to
fill the gaps and increase the planting density. The vineyard is a
combination of vines from 25 to 40 years and of multiple clones
and rootstocks. This inherent vine age and complexity have always
made great wine hence this vineyard was always the backbone of
our unfiltered wine. We have bottled individual bottlings from
this site in the past but with the quality of the 2014 vintage and
with the very detailed work in the vineyard we have been able to
produce an extraordinary wine in 2014 and rightly have bottled
just 319 cases as a single vineyard.
The drought that has impacted much of California from 2012
continued to keep rainfall levels below 50% of average and
maintained growing season heat summation above average for the
harvest. The warm and dry conditions promoted excellent quality
and when combined with above average yields the potential of the
2014 vintage is outstanding across all varieties. The 2014 Carneros Chardonnay should easily cellar for 10+
years.
Harvest
September 12 - 18, 2014
Winemaking
The winemaking is classically simple and true to all our
Chardonnays. Hand harvested fruit at optimal maturity is whole
bunch pressed directly to oak for Natural fermentation of the
cloudy juice. The wine once finished fermentation is allowed
to complete its secondary Malolactic fermentation combined
with regular barrel stirring to maintain the freshness and build
aromatic and textural complexity.
