2000 Teatown Cellars Napa Valley Chardonnay

The 2000 vintage marks our first Chardonnay produced from purchased fruit. The fruit for this single vineyard Chardonnay was sourced from Rust Ridge Vineyards located in Chiles Valley in eastern Napa. Although Chiles Valley is very warm during the day, the temperature drops significantly at night, allowing for hang time on a par with mountain Chardonnay vineyards. Rust Ridge Vineyard was planted approximately 30 years ago with at least two different Chardonnay clones. The fruit from this naturally low yielding vineyard was harvested in late September, in excellent condition and with excellent physiological maturity.

The fruit was crushed, settled and transferred to 50% new medium toast oak barrels and 50% neutral oak barrels. The wine was barrel fermented, stirred regularly and went through complete malo-lactic fermentation. The wine was racked of the lees in May of 2001. The barrels were rinsed and the wine was returned to the same barrels used for fermentation and was allowed to marry and age until bottling. The wine was bottled unfiltered and unfined in mid-August of 2001. 894 were cases produced.

The 2000 Chardonnay is light yellow in color. On the nose it is creamy and oaky with a touch of vanilla, along with ripe, lush Chardonnay fruit, a touch tropical. In the mouth, tightly focused ripe, intense Chardonnay fruit, again, a touch tropical, with balanced oak, malo-lactic, and acidity. The finish is long, and balanced with clean Chardonnay fruit.

A note about corks: We are still using “Grade ‘A’ Twin-Top Composite Corks” with very good results. A recent report of statistics, compiled at California wine competitions, found that this type of cork had the fewest taint problems when compared with all types of natural corks. We are glad to be able to reiterate that “corked” bottles are still a very rare event, and virtually non-existent.

If you would like to know about retailers in your area that carry Teatown Cellars Wines, need more information about us, or are interested  in ordering our wine, please contact us.