Search: Chardonnay, USA, California

Sleepy Hollow Vineyard® consistently produces Chardonnay fruit with intense tropical fruit character and minerality, exhibiting both richness and finesse. To further enhance quality, winemaker and vineyard manager Sam Balderas keeps yields low to increase concentration, and minimizes the handling of the wine to preserve the fruit’s natural essence. Selected from distinctive blocks of the acclaimed Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, the fruit for this wine is 100 percent barrel fermented in French oak and aged a minimum of 12 months on the lees to achieve a rich, toasty, complex character.

This wine offers aromas of apple, mango, fig and guava. The medium to full-bodied palate maintains impressive balance and flavor concentration, so it will hold its own with rich foods. The flavors of tropical and ripe stone fruits complement its acidity, and the finish is rich and long.

Fresh aromas of lime zest, nectarine, peach and apple combined with the perfumed vanilla and toasted oak. The flavors are very clean with peach, nectarine and citrus with subtle butter and vanilla toastiness, producing layers of complexity with an excellent balance of fresh fruit acidity and palate-weight.

Rises out of the glass with intense apple, ripe pear and sweet lemon drop scents complemented by toasty oak, spice and butter notes from barrel and malolactic fermentation. The palate is bright and juicy, with rich, ripe, apple and pear flavors a long, fresh aftertaste. The texture is silky-smooth, with a creaminess achieved by hand-stirring the lees in barrels during the sur lie aging.

This Chardonnay is full bodied yet elegantly structured with delicate mineral, honey, citrus and stone fruit characters from the Carneros lots, and classic pear and apple notes from the South Napa vineyards. The mouthfeel is soft and round, again a benefit of using wild yeasts.