Wine Article

Winery note: 2010 Rivers-Marie B. Thieriot Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast - 180 cases, 13.4% alc., 50% new oak
Of course the year we double the vine acreage we buy yields are tiny. This was our last piece to harvest in 2010 and until the heat in late September hit, we weren't so sure it was going to come in. Pressing out at 3.14 pH and 10 grams of acidity it's a bit of an understatement to say the wine has nice cut. As touched on previously, we feel we do a better job of making this wine every year. This might be the first year where all the potential we saw in the raw material is realized in the finished product. Once again we treated every barrel as an individual wine carefully monitoring both primary and malo completion in every lot. As in the past, there was no inoculation for either fermentation and no lees stirring. For the first time we bottled this wine at the same time as the Pinots to capture as much freshness and primary character as we could. The nose on this wine is more expressive currently than any of the Pinots. It's heavy on hazelnuts, lemon meringue, lime/lemon zest, lanolin, brioche and white chocolate. Now that we are four years in it's hard to find original things to say about this site/wine but I can say without reservation it's a wine we love to drink.