Vineyard

This Chardonnay comes from a single vineyard in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Located at about 1000 ft. in elevation, this southeastern facing 1.5 acre block was planted in 1997, and has been farmed by us since 2016. It is dryfarmed, no-till, and organic and is located in a canyon near the old logging town of Glenwood surrounded by second growth redwoods, bay trees, and coast live oaks. It is steep, about 30% slopes, and grown on clay loam soils weathered from Purisima Mudstone.

Vintage Summary

The 2021 vintage was marked by classic La Nina conditions of a cool and relatively dry winter leading to an earlier than normal budbreak. There was a light frost event in April which damaged some lower elevation vines and buds which diminished the potential yield by about a third. A warm summer and very mild temperatures in fall allowed the light crop to ripen a little more slowly. Harvested September 27th 2021.

Winemaking

The grapes were picked by hand, sorted in the field. At the winery the grapes were pressed to 2.0 bars without any maceration or crushing. The juice was splash racked to tank (for oxidation) and chilled overnight then racked into old puncheons for spontaneous fermentation. Aged 18 months on lees before being racked to tank for bottling unfined and unfiltered. 30 ppm total sulfur at bottling.

Wine Stats

Brix at harvest: 21.9

Titratable Acidity: 6.6 g/L

pH: 3.39

Residual Sugar: 0.0 g/L

Alcohol: 13.0%