2001 Camp Meeting Ridge Chardonnay
Tasting Notes
The nose this vintage is unusually forward for our estate Chardonnay at this young age. Intense aromas of baked apple, pineapple, vanilla, and hazelnut immediately waft from the glass. Typical Old Wente Clone minerality comes through on the palate and lingers through the long finish. The texture this year is especially creamy and round and should allow this wine to be enjoyed a bit earlier than normal. Acidity, while firm now, will soften over the next 6-12 months and we expect this vintage to age very gracefully over the next 4-5 years (through 2007-2008). This wine should be a fantastic accompaniment to rich seafood, poultry, and most robust Holiday Season fare. Remember to serve at cellar, not refrigerator, temperature for the most flavor and greatest aromatic complexity.
Vineyards
This vintage of our estate Chardonnay is composed of the wine of a single block, Block 6, of our Old Wente Clone selection. Block 6 is the most rugged, rocky, and least vigorous of all our Chardonnay. It consistently yields a powerful wine of great concentration, depth, and expression of terroir and has historically been an important component of the Camp Meeting Ridge Chardonnay. In this vintage it stood out as our finest lot and warranted being bottled without blending.
The Vintage
Excellent weather during bloom (flowering) and set resulted in a slightly larger average berry size than usual, moderating the tendency of this clone to yield a wine of firm phenolic structure due to the large number of very small berries. The dry winter and low starting water table demanded careful water management throughout the growing season. Harvest was the earliest ever for this block.
Harvest
September 5, 2002.
Winemaking
Careful hand sorting and whole cluster pressing yielded a juice that needed no further settling. Fermentation was with indigenous, native yeasts and was accompanied by regular battonage until the completion of the malolactic fermentation in the spring of 2002. At the end of barrel aging the wine was gently inert gas racked to tank for further settling.
Cooperage and Aging
Cooperage this year (60% new) was composed of 3-year air-dried François Freres burgundy barrels (mostly Allier forest), Remond (mostly Allier), Latour, and ultra-tight grain Seguin-Moreau "Chassagne Montrachet" barrels. The wine was aged sur lies in barrel until just after the 2002 harvest. Total time in barrel = 12 months.
Bottling
Bottled unfined and unfiltered on March 6, 2002; 236 cases produced.
Final bottling technical information
- pH: 3.64
- Total Acidity: 0.61 g/100ml
- 14.2% alcohol