Almost 50 years ago, Cakebread released its' very first wine: a 1973 Napa Valley Chardonnay, and have been fine-tuning it ever since. Grapes for this wine come from the world-famous Carneros appellation in southern Napa Valley. This region sits just north of San Pablo Bay, whose influence provides the cool, windswept conditions that produce Chardonnay with ideal balance between fruit characters and acidity. Soils here are predominantly Haire Loam, a light clay that helps grapevines naturally regulate vigor for fruit of intense concentration. Grapes were harvested by night in small batches, then pressed directly into tank as whole clusters. The juice was transferred into French oak barrels to ferment. In order to achieve maximum fruit expression, we aged the wine on its yeast lees for eight months with intermittent stirring to enhance texture and boost complexity.
