2021 Beckstoffer Carneros Lake Vineyard Chardonnay

This wine offers the aromas and flavors of a variety of tropical fruits of lemons, pineapple, apples and pears enveloped by complementary toasty oak characters. One of our finest bottlings of this wine to date, we believe that this Chardonnay is a great accompaniment to poultry and seafood dishes. With proper cellaring, this wine will continue to develop for 8 to 10 years in the bottle.

Tasting Notes and Technical Information

The warm spring and summer of the 2021 growing season in the Napa Valley produced a very small crop and earlier than normal harvest date for our Chardonnay grapes grown in Andy Beckstoffer’s Carneros Lake Vineyard.

As been our practice since 2016, our fruit was picked at night under lights. This ensures that the fruit is as cold as possible. This greatly enhances the freshness of the fruit flavors. Once at the winery, the grapes were gently whole cluster pressed. After 36 hours of settling time, the juice was racked to fill a combination of new and once used French oak barrels for fermentation. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations were completed by native yeast and bacteria. Post fermentation, the lees were stirred twice a month for 16 months at which time the wine was racked and returned to blend the different barrels. The wine was bottled 18 months after harvest.

The Specs

Blend Composition	100.00% Chardonnay Clones #76 and #95
Harvest Dates	September 6, 2021
Harvest Analysis	25.9 Brix, 5.9 gms/l TA, 3.42 pH
Alcoholic & Maloactic Fermentations	Native Yeast & Bacteria
Barrel Aging	18 months in Burgundy Style French oak, Medium Plus and Heavy Toast, 66% new Francois Freres and Taransaud Cooperages
Lees Stirring	1/week from filling for 16 months
Bottling Date	May 25, 2023
Case Production	92 Cases