Chardonnay Sangiacomo Vineyard

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

Sangiacomo Vineyards is the largest grower in the Carneros appellation. All of the individual vineyards within Sangiacomo are in exposed cool locations. The fruit gets a long growing season as the proximity to San Francisco bay moderates the temperature. We have purchased grapes from their Katarina Vineyard for many years and in 1996 we began to get grapes from the El Novillero block at their Donnell Ranch. This ranch is in a windy location near the Petaluma Gap. The wines have a citrus aroma and mineral flavors. Because of the moisture from San Francisco Bay, these vineyards typically develop some Botrytis which shows up in the wines as a peach character.

Winemaking

All of our single vineyard designated Chardonnays are 100% barrel fermented in French Oak barrels. We use 30-40% 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 may show a slight haze but this is merely a mark of gentle handling. These Chardonnays should easily age for ten years or more.