2023 Chardonnay
Pithy • Chalk • Vibrant
Best enjoyed at 43° - 52°f
Suggested drink window: now – 2027 – 2032
The 2023 Chardonnay is a blend of three of our grower partners, Caywood Vineyards, Sawmill Creek Vineyards, and Standing Stone. The majority of the blend is from Caywood Vineyards and Standing Stone Vineyards, both of which sit on Honeoye silt loam soils and are original Charles Fournier plantings from the mid-1970s. The remaining part of the blend is from Sawmill Creek Vineyards, sitting Lansing gravelly silt loam soils on very steep slopes.
Winemaking
• 100% Chardonnay
• Vineyard locations: East side of Seneca lake
• Soils: Honeoye and Lansing gravelly silt loam
• Hand harvested from September 6th - October 4th
• Indigenous yeast fermentation in barrel
• Unfined & sterile filtered
• Vegan
• Certified New York Sustainable Winegrowing
• Brix: 16.0° - 20.5° • pH: 3.40 • TA: 9.1 g/L • Malic: 3.55 g/L • RS: 0.1% • ABV: 10.5%
• Bottled: 6/24/2024
• Cases Produced: 363
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2023 Vintage Notes
As the harvest season approached, and all things pointed to 2023 being a lovely year. In the vineyards, our team worked tirelessly to ensure the cellar got to play with the best grapes possible come harvest time. Summer of 2023 was drastically different from the several previous seasons with a decent amount of rainfall, hot and humid days, but unusually cool nighttime temperatures. This means we were able to maintain a strict disease management protocol with timely shoot thinning and positioning, aggressive leaf thinning, and our hybrid organic/conventional spray program.
Many have asked about the frost event in late May and how we fared. In the days following the event, we were very nervous as we saw many small shoots go from green to black. After a few weeks, the vines started to push their secondary shoots and subsequent clusters, and we started to see life back in the hard-hit blocks. We feel very fortunate as we saw a fairly normal season as far as yields went, but we know some of our neighbors did not fare as well. These moments help reinforce the strength of the agricultural community and how we as consumers and neighbors can all help one another during challenging times by buying local, supporting small businesses, and always keeping a positive attitude!
