Wine Specs
Vintage
2018
Varietal
Chardonnay
Appellation
Willamette Valley
Harvest Date
Mid-Late September
Alcohol %
13
2018 Chers Amis Chardonnay
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
Chers Amis is a special wine club offering that is produced in very limited quantities. This is a wine of great intensity from a neighboring site to the Lingua Franca Estate that expresses a distinctive mineral characteristic along with fruit from one of the finest sites for Chardonnay in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, which has the same rocky, volcanic soils that we find in the Lingua Franca Estate. The resulting wine has a focused, intense character that feels light and pure, finishing with refreshing gunflint, lemon, and crunchy mineral nuances. It has weight but it is vibrant, filled with energy.
Vineyard Notes
The vineyard sources for Chers Amis are sourced from two vineyards with very shallow Nekia and Witzel soils, with less than one or two feet of topsoil in places. As in our own vineyard the vines send their roots into the basalt bedrock soon after they are planted. This imparts a more mineral and structured character to the wine, in harmony with the generous fruit.
Production Notes
Whole cluster pressed, barrel fermented with wild yeast in 100% neutral French oak barriques and 600-liter puncheons from diverse coopers and left to age for 11 months. Full malolactic fermentation completed in each vessel and then the wines were put back in tank with their lees for five months prior to bottling.
Food Pairing Notes
This wine marries well with simple poached or sautéed fish dishes like rockfish, halibut, turbot, and dover sole with light herbed butter, garlic butter, or a light Beurre Blanc sauce or nage. Because there is no new oak in this selection, it also would be ideal with a variety of sashimi or sushi, mackerel, calamari, octopus, whitefish, smoked salmon or gravlax.
