Our fourth consecutive vintage, we continue sourcing our fruit from the same few rows of 40 year old vines. Grown on the highest elevation 'B' block section of the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, these old Wente clone plantings are on there original roots, not grafted over as with nearly all of the vines in the world. They are in serious decline because of this and ripen more slowly than their younger counterparts; yet the small crop of tiny berries demonstrate tremendous flavor. Hand harvested on a chilly fog swept morning October 24th at a ripeness of 23.6 brix with a level of balanced acidity that we've not seen since our days of working in New Zealand. Whole cluster pressed and barrel fermented. This wine underwent a slow, cold fermentation while we stirred the lees every five days. We aged it in a mix of 1 new Budapesti Kadir, 1 new Mercier Allier, and 8 seasoned (2-3 yrs old) French oak barrels, cold settled it in tank and bottled sans filtration. The barrel is present in the profile, but very subtle as it frames the edges, care is taken to let the nature of this hillside vineyard section planted on its own rootstock to display its personality without a heavy handed approach. Tasting Notes The bright natural acidity leads off on the front palate, joined by intriguing layers of white fleshed nectarine, quince and lemongrass. The mid-palate offers up a nice medium bodied texture from the sur lie aging with a touch of brioche, ginger brulee? and flint stone minerality which develop as the wine opens. This 2006 vintage seems to shift its personality every few minutes in the glass, and as it reacts to air and temperature it shows completely different aspects of fruit and texture finishing with a subtle tropical/floral element. I think it's quite atypical for California Chardonnay to be this multifaceted and racy. It's an ever moving target that isn't content to sit still and be pigeon-holed.