The Cliff Notes: Old school Europe meets the county fair. Smell the earth. Scarf the kettle corn. Follow it with caramelized apple and honey and pistachio on brown butter cake. Feel the weight, then finish with a twist of citrus and let it peel out on the lemon.
Cases Produced: 90

Fermentation: 100% Chardonnay 3 100% whole cluster pressed and barrel fermented in an old world oxidative style. By utilizing a long, slow, low-temperature, wild-yeast, barrel fermentation regimen we are able to promote vineyard characters and preserve fleeting fruit esters.

Elevage: 100% barrel aged in older French oak barrels with a regimen of yeast/sediment stirring to promote roundness of the mid-palate. Racked and filtered prior to bottling February 2008.

Ageability: Most people aren’t used to ageing or decanting young Chardonnay, and yet I think it’s an absolute must for this wine. Like age-worthy Chardonnay from Burgundy, it will want a few years under its belt, but meantime, you’ll enjoy the wine more by getting it some air. With decanting the intent is to tie an oxygen molecule to the structure, making it act as if it had been aged another year, to help flesh it out on the table.

Alcohol: 13.75%

pH: 3.34

Vineyards: This wine is a blend from two vineyards: A block from Temperance Hill’s high and late-harvested southeastern shoulder in the Eola Hills and Maresh Vineyard’s 23 year-old Chardonnay from the Dundee Hills.