2011 Jimsomare Chardonnay

A long, wet winter and unusually cool summer challenged the growing season. If not for a warm October, ripeness would have been hard to achieve. The fruit, hand-picked and carefully sorted, arrived at the press on October 15. The chilled juice was sent to barrel, where natural yeasts fermented it to dryness in twenty-eight days. Barrels were stirred every other week during uninoculated malolactic fermentation. The wine aged on its lees for ten months, then was racked to tank to settle out clear for bottling. Jimsomare chardonnay is from an old parcel high on the ranch. Its appealing fruit and soft texture suggest that this elegant wine will be most enjoyable over the next three to four years. EB (9/12)

These vines first planted in the 1970’s on our lower vineyard, Jimsomare, (historic name: Klein Ranch) replaced the original chardonnay on the middle vineyard (Torre Ranch) that had survived from the late Forties. They have provided the fruit that has gone into our Monte Bello and Estate Chardonnays since 1985. Every few years a parcel or several parcels that can stand alone and are not included in either of those is bottled separately as Jimsomare Chardonnay.

Rainfall: 36 inches (above average)
Bloom: Late June
Weather: Moderate summer and fall, long cool growing season.

Harvest Dates: 15 October
Grapes: Average brix 24.5˚
Fermentation: Whole-cluster pressed. No inoculation. Natural primary and natural secondary (malolactic).
Selection: Three of the Estate Chardonnay parcels
Barrels: Air dried oak,85% american, 15% french , (18% one year old, 24% two years old and 58% three to four years old)
Aging: Ten months sur lees; two additional months of settling once assembled.

All estate-grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, hand harvested. Whole-cluster pressed. Fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria. Minimum effective sulfur added (30 ppm initially to barrels, 70 ppm over the course of aging). Pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Average Rating: 90.2

No. of Tasting Notes: 23

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