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Steele Whites
STEELE
SINGLE VINEYARD CHARDONNAYS
We
source our Chardonnay grapes from three distinct areas of
California: Mendocino, Los Carneros in Sonoma County and
Santa Barbara County. All of the wines 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. One other quality step that we feel
enhances these wines is a limited filtration program. 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 a mark of gentle handling
rather than a lack of attention to detail.
Dupratt is
a small mountain vineyard in southwestern Mendocino County
at 1200 feet of elevation. This is part of the new 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.
Lolonis Vineyards are
in Redwood Valley north of Ukiah. The Lolonis family has
raised grapes on this property since 1920. It was one of the
first certified organic vineyards in California. The Lolonis
family actually started to farm organically in the late
1950's long before it was trendy or politically correct.
In recent vintages this is our most intense and lush
Chardonnay. It has solid flavors of apple with note of
cinnamon and vanilla toast from the French Oak barrels,
almost like apple butter.
Sangiacomo
Vineyards
is the largest grower in the Carneros Appellation.
All of the individual vineyards 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 SF Bay, these vineyards do get some Botrytis which shows up in the wines as a peach character.
Durell
Vineyard
is in a warmer location as the foothills of the
Mayacamas Mountains surround it and just at the northern
boundry of the Carneros Appellation. This protection makes
this vineyard less windy which also helps ripening. We
harvest the Durell Chardonnay 10-14 days prior to harvesting
the grapes from Sangiacomo, even though they are only two
miles apart. The Durell combines the citrus and pear aromas
and is a reserved and austere wine.
Parmelee-Hill
was
a new vineyard for us in 1996. The vineyard manager of the
Durell vineyard, Steve Hill, bought this small four-acre
vineyard, which is contiguous with the Durell vineyard, but is far
enough north to have a Sonoma Valley Appellation. One of the
first to try something new, Steve planted French Dijon
clones of Chardonnay which ripen earlier and have lower
acids at harvest. This gives us a lush wine with aromas of
honey and spice.
Bien
Nacido
is a well-known vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley.
On a bench that overlooks the Sisquoc River, the vineyard is
quite large and has numerous slopes and aspects. We source
Chardonnay from "J" block which has a nice south slope.
The wines are typical of Santa Barbara with lots of tropical
fruit aromas and flavors.
Goodchild
Vineyard
sits
across the Sisquoc River from Bien Nacido and is a few more
miles inland. It is a younger vineyard planted on the site
of the old Goodchild land grant, which originally occupied
thousands of acres on the south side of the river. Being
further from the ocean and tucked behind some low hills, it
is warmer than Bien Nacido and is harvested a week or so
earlier. This wine shows the same tropical fruit aromas and
flavors that are typical of Santa Barbara fruit.
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