David Finlayson Chardonnay 2020
As with previous vintages, the wine shows an elegant minerality with lime-citrus, sourdough and cinnamon
flavors. The wine keeps a wonderfully tight grip on the palate, showing good aging potential. A floral note
of wild, white flowers and almond blossom is obvious on the front of the nose and follows through on the palate. There are some distinct similarities to the flavors found in cooler Burgundian and Chablis sites – perhaps most noticeably, Meursault. The focus here is to make elegant wines that work with food.
91 pts Tim Atkin
90 pts James Suckling
89 pts Decanter
This was a cool, dry vintage. All fruit was hand-picked from 4 blocks planted with French CY95 and California
CY 8 and CY 9 clones. Vine age ranges from 20 -30 years and planting density is around 3500 plants per acre.
Grapes are harvested in several stages, to provide layers of complexity and blending components (22 Brix up to 25 Brix). Grapes are whole bunch pressed and then fermented in 300 liter barrels – partial inoculation and some with natural yeasts. 30% of the fruit went through malo. Barrel regimen – (French/Alliers/med toast) 10% new, 35% 2nd fill, 45% 3rd fill, 10% concrete egg. Maturation period – 10 months. Wine was stirred twice during elevage in barrel. Prior to bottling under screwcap, the wine was crossflow filtered and fined with via Bentonite and Vegecol. 15,000 bottles were produced.
