2021 Alder Springs Chardonnay

100% Chardonnay

Located in far northern Mendocino County on a 6,000 acre ranch and nearly an hour’s drive from the next nearest vineyard, Alder Springs Vineyard was established by Stuart Bewley in 1993. In a search for the right spot to grow great grapes, he carefully studied soils from over forty sites in California and concluded that the former cattle operation was an ecological gem. The rugged, remote, and steep landscape offers nearly perfect growing conditions: bright sun, cool nights, and low-vigor soils. Being just 12 miles from the Pacific and hedged by thick redwood forest, the vines are blessed with the cooling temperatures from the ocean but are also occasionally cursed from smoke from California’s wildfires — a testament to the tension of working with Mother Nature. Environmental concerns are a driving force for Stuart and a large portion of the ranch’s acreage, also supports a timber project with the purpose of carbon sequestration, in which the trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Alder Springs Vineyard is a 6000 acre ranch situated in Northern Mendocino County in the town of Laytonville. There are about 140 acres of vineyard planted on gravelly loam and decompressed sandstone at elevations from 1700-2700 feet. Stu Bewley, the ranch’s owner, farms our blocks organically. The vineyard is organized into three sub-vineyards. We source from Chardonnay clones 548 and 124 from the Emerald Pool sub vineyard.

The 2021 Alder Springs Chardonnay is a powerhouse of concentration. It opens up with a nose of orange blossom, wisteria, Meyer lemon, and anise. On the palate we find pippin apple, yellow nectarine, Meyer lemon and apricot with mineral and spice notes through the long finish.

The boldness of this wine will make it pair incredibly with roast chicken, tandoori salmon, or garlicy lemon pasta. A beautiful complement to a meal!

With Chardonnay meant to express minerality over power, the day you pick is of paramount importance. Since this was our first time working with this vineyard, we picked it slightly riper than we would in subsequent years. That said, we still pick it quite early at about 21 brix. We whole-cluster pressed the grapes as soon as they got into the winery and avoided skin contact. We pressed to a stainless-steel tank, added 10ppm sulfur and settled at cellar temp for 24 hours. The hard press wine was kept separate and not added back. After this period, we racked the juice with the light lees to another tank and warmed it up to initiate fermentation naturally. Once the fermentation started to tick, we transferred the juice to a mix of new and used Stockinger 600L demi muids. After nearly a year in barrel, we transferred the wine to stainless steel tanks for six additional months of aging. We did not fine or filter this wine.

This wine will continue to age very well for the next several years if kept at a consistent cool temperature.

Production: 237  cases | ABV: 13.46% | TA: 5.65 g/L | pH: 3.47 | VA: 0.61 g/L | DCO2: 1211 ppm

Total SO2: 66ppm | RS: 1.6 g/L | Turbidity at bottling: 4.5 NTU

Download a technical data sheet here.

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