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The Experience
Aroma - Pear, peach and assorted stone fruits with hints of musk melon and honeysuckle. Complex nutty oak with vanilla.

Palate - Tangy peach and lychee nut fruit which builds into a rich, full bodied mid palate. Complex with layers of spicy clove, vanilla woven together with a creamy texture and a long finish.

The Vineyard
The 2002 growing season started with a relatively cool spring followed by a warm dry summer. Vine growth was vigorous in the spring so we used shoot thinning and deficit irrigation to keep the vines in balance and yields low. The grapes for our 2002 Proprietress Reserve Chardonnay came from our Vine Cliff Estate Chardonnay Vineyard and the adjacent Cuvaison Estate Vineyard in Carneros. In 2002 the combination of our new Dijon clones and grapes from a 14 year old block from Cuvaison, produced a wine with a ripe exotic aroma, rich silky mouthfeel and great depth and complexity of flavors.

The Winemaking
Our chardonnay grapes were hand picked first thing in the morning then hand sorted before being whole cluster pressed at the Winery. After 3 days cold settling the juice was gravity racked into a selection of three-year air dried French oak barrels for fermentation and ageing. After the initial fermentation the individual barrels were hand stirred, batonage, once a week until the completion of malolactic fermentation to add depth and complexity. A "Bulldog Pup" was used to gently rack the blend out of barrel before being bottled unfiltered.

Wine Facts
Harvest Dates: September 24-October 9, 2002
Growing Region: Carneros, Napa Valley
Vineyards: Vine Cliff & Cuvasion Carneros Estate Vineyards 100% Whole
Crushing Regime: Cluster
Pre-fermentation Treatment: 72-hour cold settling
Fermentation: 100% Montrachet Yeast
Malolactic Fermentation: 100 Malolactic
Barrel Composition: 70% New French Oak
Time in Barrels: 10 months
Filtration/Fining: Bentonite, Isinglass, Unfiltered
Blend Composition: 100% Chardonnay
Cases Produced: 383 Cases
Bottling Date: August 20, 2003

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