We began harvesting the Chardonnay from Paul Larson’s Carneros District vineyard on October 18, and it was one of the most bountiful and tasty crops from those vines in the 20 years that we’ve worked together.

I adore the long, exotic finish, and we enjoy it frequently as a change of pace to our home vineyard bottling. A couple of weeks tasting wines in France can change the way you look at a lot of things.

The wine is dark and rich, with an attractive aroma of spice, black cherry, and an earthy minerality. The flavors of blueberry and cassis are charming and complex.

I was introduced to Venice in the spring of 1994, when Barbara and I traveled there to attend a friend’s birthday party. It wasn’t really extravagant, as we had already planned to meet in Paris after my business trip to France, so we just postponed our return home by a few days.