2014 Altvs Napa Valley Chardonnay

Fruit for the 2014 Altus Chardonnay was sourced from Kuleto Estate, which sits high above the Napa Valley on a ridge that looks directly across at Pritchard Hill from the East. Small batches of three old California Chardonnay ‘clones’ (Wente, Robert Young, and Spring Mountain) and one newer French clone (809) were harvested over three days. Two of the batches were crushed back onto their stems to soak for several hours to pick up maximum flavor intensity and a bit of tannin, while the third was whole-cluster pressed for maximum freshness. All were barrel fermented with native yeasts and the malolactic fermentation was allowed to proceed in the two skin-soaked lots.