About The Vineyard…

Our Chardonnay owes its style, depth, and structure to intensely flavored, low yielding, heirloom clones growing in two Carneros vineyards: on the Napa side, the Toyon Farm and on the Sonoma side, the Sangiacomo Vella Ranch. We hand-selected the cuttings ourselves, from older vineyards in the Carneros area. These cuttings are reputed to have origins tracing to Paul Masson who imported them from Burgundy in the early 1940’s, from Louis Latour’s renowned Corton Charlemagne vineyard. These selections are often referred to as “Old Wente” or “Robert Young,” denoting the sourced mother blocks in the 1960s.

About The Vintage…

Small but intense, the 2015 vintage did not give us a lot of fruit to work with but what we received yielded outstanding wines. The drought continued and its effects were only exacerbated by unseasonable weather – warm in the winter on into spring resulted in early bud break, yet cold weather during flowering resulted in an uneven fruit set, which ultimately meant smaller crops. Once summer arrived, it brought warmth with it and led to another early harvesting vintage. Attention to detail in the vineyard meant that the grapes that made it to harvest were high quality . . . giving us wines with exciting flavors, and a lot of personality!

About The Wine…

We aspire to guide our Chardonnay toward a layered, complex, and expressive style that develops gracefully in the bottle and shows enticing minerality, vivacious fruit, length, and structure. For us, the watchword is balance. We pressed the grapes as whole clusters, settled and fermented entirely in French oak from four different coopers, chosen for their unique synergism and support of the fruit on the palate. One-third of the barrels were new. We used a variety of yeasts, including native strains, and fermentation proceeded evenly and slowly, averaging a cool 55°F. The wine was aged on its yeast lees, which were stirred weekly through the spring.

Tasting Notes…

A beautiful mélange of citrus and pomaceous fruit, perfumed with light notes of freesia. Bright tangerine zest and creamy lemon meringue dominate, softened by notes of pear and apple blossom. Bright acidity with a generous and opulent mouthfeel caresses the palate and leads into a finish that will continue to lengthen in the coming months. Give this complex vintage time to open up in the glass and show the full array of Old Wente Chardonnay beauty.