2023 Chardonnay Reserve
Flinty • Lime Zest • Textural
Best enjoyed at 43°F - 52°F
Recommended drink window: now – 2027 – 2031
92 points, Gold Medal - 2025 NEW YORK WINE CLASSIC
The 2023 Chardonnay Reserve is from two different grower partners, Standing Stone Vineyards and Caywood Vineyards on the east side of Seneca, just south of the midpoint of the lake. These two vineyards are truly special not only for our cellar but for the Finger Lakes region as these are original Charles Fournier plantings of chardonnay. Fournier was a leading pioneer in planting vinifera in the region and was the first to plant champagne varieties in the Finger Lakes in the 1970s, including chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier.
Winemaking
• 100% Chardonnay
• Vineyard locations: East side of Seneca Lake
• Soil: Honeoye solt loam
• Hand harvested from September 16th - October 4th
• Aged 12 months on lees in 228-liter neutral French oak barrels with bimonthly bâtonnage for 5 months
• Unfined & sterile filtered
• Vegan
• Certified New York Sustainable Winegrowing
• Brix: 16.0°-21.0° │ pH: 3.29 │ TA: 10.0 g/L │MA: 0.00 g/L│ RS: 0.15 │ ABV: 11.5 │ Bottled: 8/12/2024
• Cases Produced: 180
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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!
