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2009 Chardonnay Carneros District
If there really is a wine god, it's clear that he – or she – was smiling down on us during the 2009 harvest. I can’t recall a more beautiful summer in Napa Valley
-- a succession of moderate days and mild evenings. Chardonnay grapes love these conditions. They respond with slow sugar-development, so the wine is balanced; with high natural acidity levels, to keep the wines fresh and long-lived; and with physiologically ripening of the entire berry, which maximizes the flavor in the finished wine. We can't script a year like this, but we sure can enjoy it. Our 2009 Carneros District Chardonnay is a blend from three of the area’s top growers; the Yamakawa family, the Sangiacomo family and the Donnell family. All three grow a rare clone of Chardonnay known colloquially as Shot-Wente. It's a clone characterized by small crop levels, as well as by clusters of tiny berries that are especially flavorful. The combination of this fruit and our traditional Burgundian winemaking practices produce a Chardonnay that, while rich and exotic, is also subtle and complex. “Over the top” wine is not our objective, hence our restrained use of oak cooperage. Perhaps that's why the Wine Spectator awarded most of the past ten vintages of our Carneros District Chardonnay a score of 90 Points or more and selected the 2007 Neyers Carneros District Chardonnay as # 21 in last year's list of the 'Top 100 Wines of 2009'.
5,500 cases produced
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