2023 Estero Chardonnay, Russian River Valley

AROMA
lemon bar, loquat, crushed chalk
FLAVOR
white tea, Meyer lemon, cheese rind
FOOD PAIRINGS
brown butter scallops, lemon risotto, potato gratin

In 2022, a much tougher vintage, we declassified
barrels of all of our single vineyard Chardonnays into
Estero. The decision wrecked the COGS on the wine,
but resulted in one of our favorite versions of this wine
in some time. Maybe since 2015? In 2023, which was
a near-perfect vintage with no heat, fires, or drama of
any kind and October harvest dates (like we used to
see in the 1990s), we decided to repeat the approach.
So this Estero got a pedigree bump. It's 57% Burnside
(borders Littorai) + 19% Piner + 10% Tidal Break + 8%
Skycrest + 6% Casa Seca. And it's 100% delicious.
We've also been over-vintaging this wine for the past
few vintages, so it gets the long elevage and the
complexity and Burgo redux that comes with it.
The 3.3 pH means your mouth's gonna water.