2016 Russian River Valley Chardonnay

Our 2016 Russian River Valley Chardonnay comes from Charlie Heintz's ranch near the town of Occidental, at the far west end of the RRV appellation.  It was fermented in one neutral French oak barrel, and that single barrel yielded 24 cases.  We've been trying a new technique on the RRV Chard, where we don't do a traditional whole cluster, gentle pressing, but we give the fruit a good tumble in the press to add a bit of skin contact.  This is so that the wine will pick up some phenolics for additional aging in the bottle.  It's still in the experimental stages, but this method does make the wine a little less ready to drink upon release than typical California Chardonnays.  We're predicting a drinking window between 2019 and 2024.

 

 

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