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Fall 2009 Release
- 2007 McCrea Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Mountain
- 2007 Durell Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
- 2007 Dutton Ranch Chardonnay Russian River Valley
- 2007 Hudson Vineyard Chardonnay Carneros
- 2007 Parmelee-Hill Stone Flat Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
- 2007 Kistler Vineyard Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
- 2007 Silver Belt Pinot Noir Cuvée Natalie Sonoma Coast
We are proud to announce our Fall 2009 Release which includes the five 2007 chardonnays and two 2007 pinot noirs listed above.
The cool growing season in 2007 produced tightly wound, compelling chardonnays with low pH characters and impressive concentration. As with the most prized vintages in Burgundy, 2007 produced chardonnays typical of their vineyard of origin which are understated, nuanced, and display the stony mineral character often overshadowed by an exotic expression of fruit in the riper vintages. As always, our 2007 chardonnays were bottled unfined and unfiltered and should prove to be particularly age worthy.
Here are my brief tasting notes on our chardonnays:
2007 McCrea Chardonnay $75 per bottle
Green-tinged pale yellow. Complex aroma of tangerine, lime blossom, and powdered stone. Tightly wound and bracing throughout, dominated by its mineral side. Precise and intense with uncommon energy and grip. Penetrating finish coats the palette with flavors of lime and chalk in the tradition of great Chablis.
2007 Durell Chardonnay $75 per bottle
Green-tinged pale yellow. Deep brooding burgundian nose featuring earth, flint, and a petrolly nut-oil aroma – with its primary fruit character clearly playing a supporting role. Tight, taut and penetrating, with a powerful structure and very firm acidity. Finishes with great, building length and classic dryness. Would do major damage in a flight of top burgundies.
2007 Dutton Chardonnay $75 per bottle
Green-tinged pale yellow. Complex, leesy, soil-inflected aromas of hazelnut, and grilled nuts combined with a truffley nuance. Strong acids give the wine a compelling succulence and terrific energy. Finishes fresh, firm, and long with a suggestion of marzipan. Delicious.
2007 Hudson Chardonnay $75 per bottle
Green-tinged pale yellow. Pungent aroma of ripe fruits, iodine, and sea shell. A very tactile, concentrated wine that conveys a strong impression of soil which infuses the wine with a sulfide-y complexity and saline element which has become the signature of this world class vineyard. Long, harmonious finish.
2007 Parmelee-Hill Stone Flat Chardonnay $75 per bottle
Green-tinged pale yellow. Pungent soil-driven nose featuring deeply pitched yellow fruits, clove oil, and wet stone. Dense, very dry, steely and penetrating, with the wine’s citric intensity giving it great shape and thrust. A very focused and expressive wine which finishes with great vibrancy and a stony persistence.
The excellent 2007 growing season for pinot noir produced intense wines with loads of extract. Our shy bearing clones, which often limit yield by producing loose clusters with a mix of fully formed and smaller berries, chose to give us only clusters with tiny berries in 2007 and we were able to harvest just 1-1.5 tons per acre. Consequently, the skin to juice ratio of these pinot noirs in tank was much higher than normal which resulted in compelling, powerful pinot noirs.
In the past couple of years, besides working hard to identify and acquire new world-class pinot sites along the headlands off the Bodega coast, we have focused on farming all our vineyards more sustainably. Growing pinot so close to the ocean presents unique problems. To meet this challenge, we are learning how to encourage the vine to produce thicker skins to better protect itself against the harsh maritime climate. As a result, we are beginning to see our vineyards adapt and become more resistant to botrytis and other diseases which are most severe along the coast.
Here are my brief tasting notes on our pinot noirs:
2007 Kistler Vineyard Pinot Noir $80 per bottle
High-pitched aromas of black fruits, minerals, and earth. A powerful, concentrated and brooding wine with sharply delineated, very primary flavors. Large-scaled and utterly seamless. Racy acids frame the black fruit flavors and give the long finish a captivating, lingering perfume. Delicious.
2007 Silver Belt Pinot Noir Cuvée Natalie $90 per bottle
Penetrating, precise aromas of black raspberry, cassis, and minerals. Juicy, primary, and tightly wound – this wine coats the palette with aromatic fruits and flowers. Densely packed, silky and long, with a lovely energy which gives shape to the endless flavors. A wonderfully layered, profound wine which offers that rare combination of power and refinement.
Looking Forward:
The 2009 growing season offers much promise. Two large storms in March-April brought most vineyards to field-capacity and averted the need for severe water rationing in western Sonoma County. This spring, those growers facing the dilemma of whether to use scarce water in partially full reservoirs to frost protect their grapes or to save all available water for late season irrigation were spared having to make that tough decision at the last possible moment. Many vineyards have set larger than normal crops and it will be necessary to perform 2-3 thinning passes in some vineyards in order to make world-class wine.
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