Patz & Hall Dutton Ranch Chardonnay 1999

The Dutton family is among a few elite grape growers in California. They own several vineyard sites under the collective name - Dutton Ranch. This is from four of their sites - Mill Station Vineyard with "Old Wente Clone" Chardonnay, Sebastopol Vineyard with "Robert Young Clone" Chardonnay, Rued Vineyard with a unique selected Chardonnay clone and Dutton Hill Vineyard with California clone 04. Coupled with our very artisanal, handcrafted winemaking style the end result is a powerful and intense Chardonnay that differs from our Napa Valley wines. 1999 was an excellent, long growing season. Each site produced less-than-normal levels of clusters and after we shoot thinned and dropped problem clusters it was probably off by 10-15% or more from a normal sized harvest. Each site was picked at optimal levels of ripeness with the last of the grapes coming in at the end of October. The grapes were sorted three times by hand - twice in the vineyard (before and during the harvest) and at the winery to remove any imperfect clusters. In the winemaking the grapes were not crushed or de-stemmed before they were pressed - instead a very gentle technique called "whole cluster pressing" was used which insures only the most delicate and perfumed fruitiness in the wine. Clusters are loaded directly into the press and then gently and repeatedly pressed at very low pressures extracting the juice. The juice is then cold settled and racked into small French oak barrels to ferment. We encourage malo-lactic fermentation to add complexity, and also for the textural components brought into the finished wines. After fermentation is complete, we continue to lees stir to encourage malo-lactic fermentation and to better integrate all the flavors of the fruit, oak and lees into a seamless whole. Aged sur lie for 10 months - the wine was then bottled without filtration. Tasting Notes: Pale, yellow-green color; very intense, floral and mineral aromas with buttered lime and pear notes; flavors of fresh peach, roasted hazelnut and clove with a distinctive butterscotch/cream component - leading into a long, complex floral, mango, apple, toast and citrussy finish.