The Cliff Notes: Translucent gold in color and built in an old-world style, this wine is made for food and exhibits a dominance of savory and mineral over fruit. Honeyed lemon custard, apples, diesel, toast and earth dominate the nose. Weighty on the palate, it is earthy with flavors of bread crust, fruit cocktail and caramelized lemon bars that go the distance to finish on a knife’s edge of citric acidity.
The Story: No craftsman is ever completely sure of the goods he will produce, and oddly, that acts as an incentive to keep forging ahead. Yes, in time we’ll all be dust, but lack of forward momentum is more likely to cost us the life we truly give a damn about. I’m not inclined to let that to happen. I made this chardonnay because I’m 12 years in on a string of maybe 35 vintages allowed by this lifetime of Pinot noir. I made this wine as an experiment to raise a few questions. I made it because I don’t want to put myself away safely, like so many sticks of dynamite in a crate on a shelf. Is it my endpoint? No. But I thought there might be a fuse around and, surprise, perhaps some sparks.
Cases Produced: 62
Fermentation: 100% Chardonnay -- 100% whole cluster pressed settled and barrel fermented in an old-world oxidative style. We use a long, slow, low-temperature, wild-yeast, barrel fermentation to promote vineyard characters and build stable ageable chardonnay.
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 in September 2006.
Alcohol: 13.75%
pH: 3.38
Vineyards: The grapes for this wine come from a block on the southeastern shoulder of Temperance Hill’s high and late-harvested site in Oregon’s Eola Hills.
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