2017 Chuy Vineyard, Sonoma Valley Chardonnay Magnum

This is just our second and final vintage at Chuy—a historic Chardonnay vineyard pitched on the roof of the Sonoma Valley. Legendary viticulturist Chuy Ordaz planted these head-trained, dry-farmed Wente vines in 1963, and has been dutifully attending to them since. The low nutrient volcanic soil and virus finally diminished grape yields to the point where farming it no longer made sense. In 2017, we harvested a pitiful .80 tons per acre, from which we made a concentrated, age-worthy gobsmacker. The 2017 vintage was a cool year punctuated by a record heat event at the end of harvest. These old, soldiering vines seemed to benefit from both extremes, producing a wine with both ripe acidic structure and textural opulence. In other words—the way Chardonnay should be! Tasted blind, you might call it Meursault, stuffed as it is with golden minerals, honeycomb, yuzu, cinnamon, and yellow plum

AROMA

kumquat, white flower, cinnamon bark

FLAVOR

bosc pear, yuzu oil, talc

FOOD PAIRINGS

lemon risotto, Coquilles St.-Jacques, seafood sausage