Chardonnay Dupratt Vineyard 2008

We source Chardonnay from seven vineyards in California. Santa Barbara, Carneros, Sonoma and Mendocino are all appellations Jed considers superior for Chardonnay. In any given vintage, Jed will determine that anywhere from two to four of the vineyards have produced fruit that is truly remarkable. The best of these lots is separated and bottled as single vineyard designated Chardonnay. The wines display an expression of Chardonnay that is a unique combination of varietal and geographic character. Each single vineyard Chardonnay is produced in small lots of under 500 6-packs.

Vineyard

DuPratt is a small mountain vineyard in southwestern Mendocino County at 1200 feet of elevation. This is part of the Mendocino Ridge Appellation where it is the elevation which marks the boundaries rather than other features. Rainfall here can exceed 60 inches per year. Most famous for its 80-year-old Zinfandel vines, DuPratt has five acres of Chardonnay planted in 1983. This is a "Mountain" wine in the sense that it has great backbone, acidity and structure. It is always the last Chardonnay to be harvested in any vintage. A mineral quality and long finish frame aromas of pear and citrus. This is a wine worth waiting for.

Winemaking

All of our single vineyard designated Chardonnays are barrel fermented in French Oak. We use 30% new barrels each vintage and the wines are in barrel for 8-10 months. All wines finish malolactic fermentation and have the lees stirred monthly. We use a limited filtration program to further enhance the wines. The wines are clean racked in September and allowed to settle naturally in stainless steel tanks for three months. The wines are then bottled without tight filtration. These Chardonnays should easily age for ten years or more.