About this Wine

The Cutrer Vineyard Chardonnay 1.5L

The Cutrer Vineyard sits on an ancient seabed that retains heat, radiating it to the closely spaced vines. With diverse microclimates, soil types, rootstocks and clones, each vineyard block offers unique nuances, providing our winemakers with a “spice rack” of flavors to craft this premium wine.

Here we go again! After what looked like a promising season last fall, the first three months of the year became California’s driest on record, marking the third year of mega-drought. As in past drought years, we closely monitored vine needs and soil moisture. Fortunately, a mild spring and summer, along with a beautiful August and the return of fog, helped us navigate this challenging season.

The grapes were hand-harvested at night into shallow bins and cooled to preserve their fresh flavors and natural acidity. After whole-cluster pressing, the cool, golden-green free-run juice settled for a few days before fermenting in French oak barrels. The Cutrer is 100% barrel-fermented and aged seven months sur-lies, with barrels stirred and topped weekly. After seven months in newer French oak, the wine was blended, racked into three-year-old barrels for five months, then blended again and returned to those barrels for another ten months before bottling.