Amourette Chardonnay 2020
There is one glorious white grape here - 100% Chardonnay from our Estate Vineyard - a single, perfect vineyard, grown exclusively for low yield, high quality fruit.
Barrel fermented in the traditional Montrachet method using just the right amount of French Oak - not too much - just perfect and then malolactic fermentation, by design, interrupted about half way through.
Amourette expresses itself with flavor nuances of pear and honey. Some will detect a slight, very subtle butterscotch finish, indicating its gentle 50% malolactic treatment.
Notwithstanding the pandemic, the August heat spikes and the fires the 2020 harvest started earlier than average and as expected the crop was lighter than normal.
Even with all the challenges, the high quality of our grapes remains with some varieties especially flavorful from fruit concentration since the vines didn’t have any excess water.
In this 2020 year we have been really fortunate with our vineyards located across four counties our planting diversity saved our 2020 grape crop from potential smoke taint.
Amourette could be considered the purest expression of the Chardonnay grape with its incredible nose, exotic fruit flavors, spice and butterscotch in a balanced wine with just enough acidity and body to evoke power, while not erring on the side of being too heavy.
Even with all the challenges, the high quality of our grapes remains with some varieties especially flavorful from fruit concentration since the vines didn’t have any excess water.
This year we have been really fortunate with our fifteen vineyards located across four counties our vineyard planting diversity saved our 2020 grape crop from potential smoke taint.
Our Dry Creek Valley vineyards located on the valley floor have not been exposed to heavy smoke as much as hillside vineyards and in spite of their mountain side locations in Napa our Pritchard Hill and Atlas Peak vineyards were also below the smoke line and show no signs of being effected while our Sonoma Mountain, Mendocino and Red Hills vineyards saw no smoke and ripened as naturally as possible with the high August temperatures.
| Color | White |
|---|---|
| Vintage | 2020 |
| Harvest Date | 2nd Sep 2020 |
| Vintage | 23.4° |
| Style | White Burgundy |
| Appellation | Dry Creek Valley |
| Varietal | Chardonnay |
| Date Bottled | 26th Jul 2021 |
| Drinkable | 2021 - 2023 |
| Alcohol | 14.20% |
| Bottle Size | 750ml |
