2017 Wildcat Mountain

94 Points: Jeb Dunnuck Jeb Dunnuck

"Coming from a single vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, the 2017 Chardonnay Wildcat Mountain Sonoma Coast offers a ripe, masculine bouquet of crushed citrus, salty, marine notes, spice, and ample minerality. It's beautiful on the palate and has medium to full-bodied richness, nicely integrated acidity, and a great finish. It's another beautiful wine from this estate and should keep for 5-7 years."

92+ Points: Erin Brooks Robert Parker Wine Advocate - April 2019

The 2017 Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay is scented of delicate citrus blossom and stone to begin, opening to baking bread, spring honey and soft white pit fruit. Light to medium-bodied, it has savory/nutty layers in the mouth balanced by ripe fruit along with refreshing acidity to carry the lively finish.

90 Points: Kim Marcus Wine Spectator - June 2019

A minerally style, with notes of stone and savory spice to the green apple and white berry flavors. Floral hints show on the taut finish.

The 2017 growing season started off as a wet one. Record rainfall through April invigorated the vines and bolstered canopies. Moderate-to-warm temperatures followed, allowing the vines to bloom and mature fruit in a balanced and tempered way. We did apply more leafing in our canopy management to counter the invigorating effects of the rain. All of our Chardonnay blocks were picked prior to the devastating wine country fires in early October, leaving all wine lots free of possible smoke influence. Grapes were picked from three distinct blocks planted to three different clones: 95, 76, and 15. Each block had a unique harvest date between September 14th and 16th, 2017.

Planted by Steve MacRostie in 1998, and located in the cool Petaluma Gap region of the Sonoma Coast, Wildcat Mountain Vineyard possesses an ideal mountain terroir and remarkable volcanic soils that consistently produce fruit with intensity and depth of flavor. Very close to the bay, yet 700 feet above sea level, this vineyard is windy, foggy, cool, and very stingy with its crop levels, which results in exceptional wines. This sustainably-certified vineyard is broken up into 18 different blocks spread across five fields, with a variety of elevations, exposures and soil types. Wildcat’s Chardonnay offers exceptional structure, sophisticated minerality and cool-climate “nerve,” while the Pinot Noir delivers sumptuous color, weight and black fruit character.

• composition:

  100% Chardonnay

• alcohol: 14.60%
• cases made:

  1000 Cases

• bottling date: 08/16/2018
• aging:

  Aged 10 months sur lie in French oak, 20% new

• fermentation:

  Whole cluster pressed then racked into French oak for primary and malolactic fermentation