2004 Reserve Chardonnay

Recent Tasting Notes

Pretty nose, grapefruit, flinty and mineral notes, sweet butterscotch/vanilla, lively. In the mouth, young fruit, sweet toast, hint of butterscotch, grapefruit zest in the finish.
 

Winemaker's Notes

Ample Winter rains followed by a mild Spring and Summer brought an excellent growing season. Excitement came September 4-6 when a wildfire burned 12,500 acres in the hills above our winery. Harvest began on August 30 with the grapes measuring:

Following techniques I learned during my internship at Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault, France, we barrel-fermented the juice in new and one-year-old French oak to give the wine a toasty vanilla aroma and a richness on the palate. After primary fermentation, we moved half of this wine with its lees (yeast sediment) to older French oak barrels to allow the wine to develop and age without becoming too oaky. Then all of the Reserve underwent malolactic fermentation. This traditional Burgundian Technique converted the grapes’ natural malic acid to the softer lactic acid and added richness and complexity to the wine.

The Reserve was then aged sur lies (on its sediment) in barrels in our caves for 15 months and the lees were stirred every two weeks to give the wine a creamy texture and a flinty aroma. The wine was bottled in February 2006 with:

Youthful elegance is an excellent descriptor of the 2004 Reserve Chardonnay. The wine opens with flinty, toasty, mineral notes from its barrel fermentation and extended barrel aging. Its sweet citrus fruit components give the wine depth and structure while vanilla cream flavors from malolactic fermentation add richness and complexity to the palate. Like its predecessors, the 2004 Reserve has the structure and balance to age for at least four more years.

April 2007