Although Pinot Noir offers us the opportunity to walk through many different phases in the wine-making process (sorting, destemming, the cold soak, heating, fermentation, pressing, racking, and barreling down, just to name a few), this past week it has been a pleasure to receive fruit from our blocks of Chardonnay because it is a slightly more stream-lined process.

Since we do not whole-cluster ferment any of our white wines, we experience the instant gratification of tasting the juice from the press the day the grapes are picked; one of the aspects I've enjoyed the most of this vintage has been the opportunity to explore the differences in flavor reflected in the fruit coming from our different vineyard sites. Nearly a week ago, our cellar master Griffin Brown and I stood around the press sampling the free-run juice from a block of Chardonnay from the Two Barns vineyard. Each of us, upon first sip, decreed that indeed it wasn't juice we were tasting but rather a beaker of butterscotch. A short time later, after a press cycle, that we agreed that the same juice had turned into chocolate creme brulee. The next day, our palates weren't as in sync. Chardonnay from our Etoile Vineyard tasted distinctly Fuji apple-like to him, while the only thing I could think of was a Bartlett pear.

Blessed with perpetually clear days and a seemingly endless summer, through the end of October we have had the pleasure of harvesting our fruit only when we feel that it has achieved optimum ripeness. For those of us new to the area and to the winery, this has provided the perfect template to learn the different characteristics of the varying vineyard sites under optimal conditions, and for that we are certainly grateful. – Written by Zach Bryant, Harvest Intern. Photos by Megan Jones.