2005 Reserve Chardonnay

Recent Tasting Notes

Lovely fiinty and mineral notes, hints of pears, touch of rich vanilla from oak aging. Grapefruit entry in the mouth, flinty, sweet cream richness.
 

Winemaker's Notes

2005 was an ideal growing season with our coolest Summer in 25 years. It was a vintage winemakers dream of because moderate temperatures allowed the grapes to ripen slowly and evenly. We began our harvest on September 26 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 2007 with:

Our 2005 Reserve Chardonnay reflects the ideal growing season from which it came. Ripe pear and citrus aromas give the wine its depth and structure; flinty, toasty, mineral notes from its barrel fermentation and extended barrel aging enhance its bouquet. Sweet vanilla and butterscotch flavors from malolactic fermentation add richness and complexity to the palate. Youthful and lovely now, the 2005 Reserve has the structure and balance to age for at least four more years.

April 2008