We are looking forward to our first harvest of Estate Chardonnay in 2010. We have previously sourced Chardonnay from the Jasper Vineyard, owned by our friends and neighbors, Dane and Tara Jasper.

Picked and sorted in the vineyard, the grapes are placed immediately into the press as whole clusters.  This process gently extracts the juice without any of the harsh tannins.  The juice is placed into tanks to start fermentation, and transferred to barrels once fermentation is under way, a step we believe maintains a crispness to the flavors developed in the vineyard.  Typically the fermentation progresses slowly, sometimes taking as long as 4 months.   During this time the barrels are tended meticulously with weekly topping and stirring and the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation.   We rack our Chardonnay twice to clarify.  The barrels are exposed to cold winter nights to achieve a gentle stabilization and to reduce tartrate formation. 

Our Chardonnay is bottled unfiltered after 11 months and released the in late fall.