100% Chardonnay
San Benito County , CA
Tasting Notes: This is a beautifully intricate Chardonnay, enticing layers of white peach, orange blossom and crushed oyster shells. On the palate, the flavors are framed by a backbone of cool-climate acidity. While it has both nerve and energy, there is also a mid-pallet creaminess to this wine, that offers a lovely counterpoint, while helping to draw the flavors to a lingering finish.
Release Date: Summer 2025
Production: 245 cases
Vineyard: The grapes for this wine come from a single vineyard located in the Eastern hills of Gablian Mountains just about 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The Gimelli Vineyards has a long history in what is known as Indian Canyon. This site is rich in decomposed granite with layers of limestone soils that makes it a great match for Chardonnay. Elevation is about 1200 ft and with the marine influence from Monterey bay it makes for a long growing season.
Harvest: The 2023 growing season produced a vintage of high quality grapes. During the dormant winter season there was an abundant amount of rainfall. A delayed growing season started with bud-break in early April followed by flowering early in June at the Gimelli Ranch. After a few short heat spikes in mid to late July a cooler August made for an excellent finish to the growing season. The quality was excellent and our Chardonnay was hand harvested late September at 21.5 brix.
Fermentation: We gently foot treaded the berries prior to pressing for a few hours of skin contact to help release nutrients for a healthy fermentation. We then fermented the grapes in a combination of seasoned 400 & 500 liter French oak puncheons using indigenous yeast.
Cellar Notes: This wine was aged for 15 months in a mix of seasoned French oak 400 & 500 liter puncheons. To enhance richness and mouthfeel, the chardonnay underwent 100% malolactic fermentation in oak. After racking from oak to stainless steel tank we gave it another two months of aging. This Chardonnay was bottled unfiltered in March 2025 using minimum sulphur.
Technical Notes:
Alcohol: 12.5%
pH: 3.36
Total acid: 6.0 g/l
Malolactic fermentation: 100%
