Wine Specs
Vintage
2024
Varietal
Chardonnay
Appellation
Willamette Valley
Harvest Date
9/9-10/12
Alcohol %
13.0
2024 Lingua Franca Avni Chardonnay
Our 2024 Avni encapsulates the beauty and realized potential of Chardonnay in the region. It opens with strong floral notes, hints of cucumber, hawthorn, lemon blossom, and peach. The entry is crisp and racy. Towards the midpalate, a more saline note emerges, joined by bright green apple and wet stone. The wine finishes with a long, lingering flavor of lemon, honeysuckle, and sea spray. This vintage has rendered a racy, well-defined Chardonnay, marked by tension and precision. It is effortlessly alive.
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
Strongly floral notes, hint of cucumber, Hawthorne and lemon blossom, peach. The entry is crisp and racy. Towards the midpalate a more saline note appears, bright green apple and wet stone as well. and the wine finishes with a long flavor of lemon, honeysuckle and sea spray. The vintage rendered a racy, well-defined Chardonnay with tension.
Vineyard Notes
The fruit for 2024 Avni Chardonnay comes from a wide variety of sites in the Willamette Valley, with the majority from shallow volcanic soils of our Bunker Hill vineyard and Blue Heron, with some from Bellpine, Willakenzie and other uplifted marine sediments as those found on Mt Pisgah and in the Van Duzer corridor.
Production Notes
100% hand-harvested, and 90% whole cluster pressed with a single press cut. 10% of the grapes were crushed prior to press. Juice settled for 24-48 hours in airtight tanks before barrel fermentation with wild yeast in 500- and 600-Liter barrels and 3,200-Liter casks. Lees are stirred once or twice prior to spontaneous indigenous malolactic fermentation. The wine finishes fermentation and aging sur lie for around 11 months with a further 5 months in tank before bottling.
Winemaker Notes
2024 has been described as a perfect growing season. Budbreak began in early April and bloom took place third week of June. Early summer temperatures were in the 70s and 80s, with a couple of heat spikes in the high 90s, in July, when these can be beneficial. The temperatures became cooler in September and October, allowing harvest to extend more than a month with each parcel being picked at optimal ripeness and freshness. Picking began the second week of September, and each block could be picked at exactly the right time.
