2018 Estate Chardonnay

2018 Chardonnay | Lingua Franca Estate
Date Picked: 2nd Week of September, 2018
Finished Wine: Alcohol: 12.5%, pH: 3.26
Suggested Retail: $55 • 1,000 Cases Produced

The Estate Chardonnay is vibrant and focused, with classic acidity and structure. The golden skinned fruit was fully ripe with brown, completely lignified stems at harvest. The wine promises to have a long aging ability but is already showing signs of its greatness. 

While the fruit had ripe flavors and color, the wine has moderate alcohol levels, demonstrating that ripeness and sugar at harvest are not identical. Thoughtful farming practices and an exceptional site help to influence the timing and quality of harvest.  The brightness and precision of CH76 are here augmented by the richness in flavor and texture of CH548.

Vinification

The fruit field sorted, hand-picked, then whole cluster pressed, settled in tank for 24 hours on average, barrel fermented with wild yeast in a combination of 40% new, 600-liter puncheons and 60% old French oak barriques from diverse coopers and left to age for 11 months. Full malolactic fermentation completed spontaneously in each barrel. The wines were combined in tank with their lees for five months prior to bottling.

2018 Vintage

Overall extreme drought conditions shaped the vintage by stressing the vines and lowering the amount of juice in each berry, concentrating flavors.  Lingua Franca Estate Chardonnay is sourced from the shallowest volcanic soils on the ridge of our lower blocks, where vines have excellent exposure and find water in the cracked bedrock.