2009 Chardonnay - Russian River Valley / Russian River Selection
 |
VINeyard
The creation of "cuvées" is clearly among our most important and exciting tasks, resulting in the finest possible blends utilizing all our best sources. This vintage is sourced from some the of our top Chardonnay vineyard properties.
WINEMAKING Notes
2009 was a long vintage - Harvest kicked off about a week to ten days later than normal for us due in part to a cool wet spring. This inclement weather extended bloom time and caused smaller crop sizes in some areas.
A nearly ideal growing season followed with below normal summer temperatures, limited frost damage, fewer hot days, and saving rains in early May producing excellent quality fruit with great flavors, color development and in many cases lower sugar content.
Later in the growing season cool foggy mornings were followed by warm sunny afternoons, giving us absolutely ideal grape ripening conditions - a classic Russian River Valley weather pattern that allows grapes to develop full flavor maturity over an extended growing season while retaining their bright, natural acidity.
Harvest was a mixture of both periods of heat followed by periods of rain to cool and slow things down. Chardonnay and Pinot have shown excessively small berries –resulting in wonderful, concentrated flavors. 2009 should be an excellent vintage!
Tasting NOTES
This 2008 Russian River Chardonnay shows a lemon-gold color with medium intensity and bright clarity in appearance. The developing nose has medium plus intensity and shows ripe apple, pear, acacia blossom, lemon, toast, popcorn and vanilla.
The palate is dry with medium plus acidity, body, flavor intensity and length, showing additional notes of citrus peel and butterscotch. The wine’s lively acidity and supple viscosity will lend itself to many seafood and poultry dishes, as well as aged Gouda cheeses.
Technical Notes
AVA: Russian River Valley
Varietal: 100% Chardonnay
Harvested: Sept. 5 – 29, 2009
Bottled: June 2 - 3, 2010
Cases Produced: 2,237
Lab Analysis: 14.2% alcohol, 3.32 pH,6.60 gm/L titratable acidity
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Retail Price: $32