Maverick Vineyard Chardonnay
Aromatics are bright, crisp lemon slice. Lanolin, hot candle wax. Scent of freshly grated coconut with a squeeze of lemon, evolves to freshly cut lawn, hot honey comb, finishing with salty lemon rind in a vegetable stew. The entry is smooth then the acidity makes you salivate, like the old eighth-grade science experiment where you chew up Saltine Crackers, turning from savory to sweet. Amazing. The finish is apple, pear skin only, orange peel, some wood tannin present.
750ml Bottle
Aromatics are bright, crisp lemon slice. Lanolin, hot candle wax. Scent of freshly grated coconut with a squeeze of lemon, evolves to freshly cut lawn, hot honey comb, finishing with salty lemon rind in a vegetable stew. The entry is smooth then the acidity makes you salivate, like the old eighth-grade science experiment where you chew up Saltine Crackers, turning from savory to sweet. Amazing. The finish is apple, pear skin only, orange peel, some wood tannin present.
750ml Bottle
Aromatics are bright, crisp lemon slice. Lanolin, hot candle wax. Scent of freshly grated coconut with a squeeze of lemon, evolves to freshly cut lawn, hot honey comb, finishing with salty lemon rind in a vegetable stew. The entry is smooth then the acidity makes you salivate, like the old eighth-grade science experiment where you chew up Saltine Crackers, turning from savory to sweet. Amazing. The finish is apple, pear skin only, orange peel, some wood tannin present.
750ml Bottle
2019 Maverick Vineyard Chardonnay
Coopers: Taransaud, Rousseau, CADUSAll raised within the normal 228 liter barrels of which approximately one-third was new French oak from a slow growth forest. The biggest Chardonnay of the four showing a massive and dense nose with reduction in a natural, box of rubber bands kind of way. Intriguing and comforting, if you ever have experience real rubber bands that is... Definitely the most powerful of the group in aromatics, entry and flavor.
WINEMAKER’S NOTE:
Fifty Fifty Blend of 76 and 95 clones of Chardonnay. Grown on a small bump of a vineyard, south facing at around 275 feet in elevation. Corrected row directions for “true floating north” and kicked out another few degrees to lessen the sun exposure. Coming in at less than three tons per acre. Harvest with brightness in the juice. Since the 2010 vintage I have been using the pre-oxidative process for my Chardonnays where after a hard press resulting in many solids, the juice rests in an open-top stainless-steel fermentation vessel with a bug screen for six to ten days. Over this time period the juice turns from clear, to yellow, to dark brown. When the juice is completely oxidized, I drain the tank into 100 percent new French oak barrels where fermentation spontaneously starts over a six to eight-week period. At this point, my Pinot noir fermentations are complete and I need those new French oak barrels for Pinot noir. I then rack out most of the vigorously fermenting Chardonnay into Neutral French Oak puncheons. Some of these New French Oak barrels are topped with the Chardonnay, ergo remaining in the New French oak. All barrels are then topped up and left undisturbed for between 18 and 22 months. Once malolactic has finished, usually within six to nine months, SO2 is added. No additions, other than SO2, are made in the press nor along the way.