Fall Release DuMOL Estate Vineyard Chardonnay
2018

Winemaker’s Notes

In a vintage that will be universally considered a classic for red wines, we have produced one of our finest ever Chardonnay bottlings. This is the white wine of the vintage, likely the finest expression thus far of our high-density planting 10 miles from the Pacific. Such quality is fleeting and difficult to execute, both in the vineyard and in the winery, and is only found when seasonal conditions and winegrowing sensitivity achieve a subtle equilibrium between nature and winemaking intention.

Our Estate vines are now in their prime, and there’s a natural balance between root depth, canopy growth and crop yield—the roadmap to wine greatness. This 2018 bottling offers as pure a reflection of these highly eroded upland sandstone soils as ever imagined—a beautiful combination of intensity, concentration, savory complexity and nervy acidity.

The wine’s aromas are classically intense, mineral and stony, displaying less simple fruit and more savory elements: thyme flower, sage, mint and sweet hay. Lemongrass and lime notes rise up with chamomile followed by honeysuckle richness. The palate is intense, densely packed and wonderfully deep with a core of rich lemon and lime oil. There’s focus, verve and vibrancy in the wine’s long, briny, flinty-mineral finish. Its succulence and obvious richness are quite rare, but the wine’s high natural acidity keeps it mouthwatering and tense at all times. Drink between late 2020 and 2028, serving no cooler than 55° F. I recommend magnums of this wine for aging. Bottled unfiltered.

Andy Smith