Handmade wines
since 1983.
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1999
CHARDONNAY CLOS PEPE
This new Pinot Noir
and Chardonnay vineyard located in the cool Lompoc area
of the Santa Ynez Valley excites us. The vines are planted
close together, four by eight feet instead of the old California
standard of six or eight by twelve feet. The vineyard is
on nutrient poor sandy soil, and the vines grow without
much vigor. Our block is planted to one of the French clones
of Chardonnay (Dijon #76), newly available in this country.
In addition, the owner and the vineyard manager truly want
to produce the best quality grapes possible.
I had been observing
the vineyard throughout the growing season, giving my input
where needed, and was quite pleased with how things were
progressing. But I was not prepared for how different these
grapes would look as they arrived at the winery. The clusters
and the berries themselves were much smaller than the other
chardonnay grapes we had received. We were used to the U.C.
Davis clones 4 and 5 to which most of our area is planted.
The other huge difference was the color of the fruit--it
was golden. Rather than yellow on the sun side of the cluster
and green on the shade side, every berry was golden and
fully ripe. This was certainly evidence that the combination
of row orientation, vertical trellising, and leaf pulling
makes a huge difference!
The
wine received our usual minimal handling (watch carefully
and do nothing), and we bottled it without fining or filtration
in early December of 2000. The wine, while still young, shows
great promise. It possesses a lovely balance; its acidity
level is high enough to give it nerve, yet the wine has ample
richness. It does not have that typical California tropical
fruit aroma but a subtler lemon-y, mineral-y character that
is a little hard to describe yet is quite satisfying. We are
thrilled with the quality of this wine.
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