2000 Signature Chardonnay
Winemaker's Notes
The pale straw color leads you into complex and tropical Chardonnay aromas, expressing orange blossom, tangerine, floral-perfume along with its sweet cedar, nutmeg and vanilla oak spices. A luscious entrance of bright tropical fruits of peach and apricots continue into a mouth-watering, rich mid-pallet texture and viscosity of honey, passion fruit and integrated cinnamon and nutty roasty spices, fading into a lingering finish. Suggested retail: $10.00
Technical Notes
Final Analysis: 13.5% alcohol, TA 0.53 g/100ml, pH 3.61
Fermentation: 100% barrel fermentation: 80% malolactic fermentation.
Aging: 100% barrel aged for 8-10 months.
Growing Season & Winemaking
Bud-break occurred in early April, which can be considered normal. As we moved into the month of May, Mother Nature turned on her charm. Flowering was quick but uniform, resulting in good fruit set of about 100-150 berries per cluster.
The summer continued with lots of sunshine, heat and no rain, causing the vine’s biological clock to be wound faster than “normal.” Harvest began September 27th with fruit showing high sugar levels, balanced acid profiles and great flavors.
After whole cluster pressing this hand picked fruit to temperature controlled tanks, the juice is yeast inoculated to start its long-cool fermentation to lock in the beautiful Chardonnay tropical fruit characters and aromatics.
Halfway through the fermentation the juice is transferred to barrels (mostly French oak with some American oak for diversity and vanilla character) to complete fermentation and capture and integrated oak flavors and spices.
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