It's a well known secret that most winemakers carry around a tiny soap box to stand on when it comes time to discuss Chardonnay. It's the varietal that offers the most transparency when it comes to decision making - where it's grown, when it's picked, how it's pressed/fermented, what it's aged in, etc. - so it's really easy to fall down the tangential rabbit hole once the conversation gets going. 

In 2020, I decided to push the range of Chardonnay in the cellar to see what texture, aromatics, structure, and flavor development looked like using Chardonnay picked from the same biodynamically farmed vineyard, on the same day, that underwent different winemaking techniques. I direct pressed much of the fruit for the sibling bottling to this wine that will be released in the future. But with this wine, I fermented the juice on the skins in two lots—one for 36 hours and the other for seven days.

The goal was to build richness and texture without relying on oak. The resulting wine is salty, savory, and mineral driven while still preserving lovely tension and acidity. One barrel of each, blended together after twelve months and bottled unfined/unfiltered. 55 cases total production.