Historically cultivated in the Saône-et-Loire, between Dijon and Lyon, and ranging from Burgundy to Champagne, the earliest reliable reference to “Chardonnet” is from the late 1600s. The grape takes its name from the village of Chardonnay in Southern Burgundy. Until the end of the 19^th century, Chardonnay was confused with Pinot Blanc. Surprisingly, DNA testing has shown that Chardonnay is a natural cross between Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc. While Chardonnay is early budding and relatively easy to grow, it is susceptible to frost and thanks to its thin skin, mildew.

Chardonnay is a particularly transparent grape that can produce very different wines depending on where it is grown. It can be dramatically shaped in the winemaking process by factors like malolactic fermentation and the amount of new oak used during aging. Today, Chardonnay is the great white grape of Burgundy. In fact, it has been the success of the finest white Burgundies from places like Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, and the Côte-d’Or that has driven the rise of Chardonnay around the world. In France, Chardonnay is also the key grape of Chablis, where it makes mouthwateringly crisp and mineral-driven wines, and in Champagne where it combines with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier to make the world’s most revered sparkling wines.

From the Old World to the New World

In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Chardonnay spread its wings and found new homes in North America, South America, and Australia, where its popularity exploded, making it the official go-to white wine for the vast majority of wine drinkers. It is also planted in Italy, Spain, Austria, New Zealand, South Africa, and throughout Eastern Europe and China. Today, Chardonnay is the world’s most widely planted white wine grape.

Chardonnay Comes to America

Historical records show that Chardonnay had arrived in California by the 1800s, when the head of the California Viticulture Commission, Charles Wetmore, imported budwood from Meursault and planted it in his Livermore vineyard. By early the next century, this selection, as well as clonal material brought over by the Wente family, helped to establish a beachhead for Chardonnay in the New World and led to what is now known as the Wente Selection of Chardonnay. Following a similar timeline, clonal material brought to California by Paul Masson became the source for the Martin Ray selection. In the early 1940s, this selection was planted at Mount Eden in the Santa Cruz Mountains. During this formative period for the grape, the Wente and Martin Ray selections were the key source of Chardonnay budwood in California.

In the 1950s, the US Ambassador to Italy, James Zellerbach, founded Hanzell Vineyards, which focused on producing Burgundian-style Chardonnay. In the years that followed, other wineries in California began growing and making Chardonnay, and in 1976, Chateau Montelena’s victory at the famed Judgment of Paris marked a key turning point for the grape in the US. In the years that followed, demand for Chardonnay grew rapidly, as did planting throughout California, and by the 1980s there was more Chardonnay planted in California than in France. In fact, by 2005, Chardonnay planting in California represented 25% of global production. While early California Chardonnays took inspiration from Burgundy, they soon evolved into more opulent and buttery expressions of the grape, with grapes picked riper and at higher Brix, and the use of more new oak. While this style took hold in much of California, especially in the warm climate of Napa Valley, in cooler regions like Sonoma County, Chardonnay pioneers like Steve MacRostie began championing a brighter, more balanced, and sophisticated expression of the grape. Today, there are more than 100 clonal selections of Chardonnay in California.

Stay tuned for The History of MacRostie’s Chardonnay Program.

Our roots at Wildcat Mountain Vineyard run deep. In 1997, while helping his son with a high school science project about soil types, our founder, pioneering Sonoma Coast vintner Steve MacRostie, discovered an ideal section of unplanted pastureland that would one day become Wildcat Mountain Vineyard. As Steve and his son discussed the site’s spartan volcanic soils, Steve noted Wildcat’s elevation and mountain terroir, and the way the wind and fog raced off the Petaluma Gap cooling the land. While we don’t know how his son did on his soil project, we do know that Steve’s visit planted a seed that would grow into one of the best Sonoma Coast vineyards and the source for some of MacRostie’s most acclaimed wines.

Eighteen Blocks, One Bold Vision

Eager to cultivate his own great piece of land and believing that the site had near limitless potential for producing extraordinary cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Steve (right) approached the land’s owners, ranchers Tony and Nancy Lilly (left and center), and formed a partnership to develop the land into Wildcat Mountain Vineyard. After meticulously evaluating the site and thoughtfully selecting early ripening rootstocks and a diversity of his favorite clones, Steve began the careful planting of 58 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah vines in 1998. In keeping with the natural topography of the site, the plantings were designed as 18 different vineyard blocks spread across five fields, with a variety of elevations, exposures, and soils.

Volcanic Soils, Relentless Winds, Exceptional Wines

Located in the remote western borderlands between Carneros and the Sonoma Coast and on the edge of the cool Petaluma Gap AVA, Wildcat Mountain Vineyard offers a unique composition of well-draining shallow, volcanic soils over fractured andesite, with elevations ranging from 500 to 700 feet. Adding to its appeal for producing exceptional cool-climate varieties, the vineyard enjoys regular morning fog, followed by afternoon sun, with cooling breezes that thicken the grape skins. As a result, Wildcat Mountain Vineyard has a very long growing season that allows the fruit to achieve optimal ripeness, with excellent acidity, and structure.

“I felt Wildcat would push the envelope,” said Steve. “The cooler climate, the stressful site, the thinner soils; it was not a safe place to set up a farming operation. From a business sense it was probably rather stupid but from a winemaking standpoint it felt bold and right. Often, we’re not above the fog or below it, we’re in it. And if it’s not the fog, it’s the wind. The vines are literally bent back by the force of wind off the bay, running up the mountain and pummeling the vines like a boxer with too much confidence.”

First Bottling to Lasting Legacy

In 2001, Steve made MacRostie’s very first vineyard-designate Chardonnay using grapes from Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, as well as a vineyard-designate Pinot Noir. Even in the vineyard’s youth, the wines from Wildcat were fascinating and quickly earned a reputation for their depth and structure, as well as their intricate and exotic expression of terroir. More than two decades later, the sustainably certified vineyard is recognized as the source for some of the best Sonoma Coast wines.

Precision Farming, World-Class Results

Since being named MacRostie’s winemaker in 2013, Heidi Bridenhagen has further cemented Wildcat’s reputation as a grand cru-caliber vineyard, with its wines consistently earning rave reviews and 90+ point scores. Heidi has also used fruit from Wildcat to craft MacRostie’s coveted Single-Barrel wines and as part of the winery’s pinnacle, The Loch and The Key bottlings. At the same time, Wildcat has become a sought-after grape source for such noted wineries as Talisman, Fulcrum, Bannister, and others. “Great vineyards have something unique and special to offer,” said Heidi. “I love the wines from Wildcat. The Chardonnays are distinctive and fascinating, with exceptional structure, sophisticated minerality, cool-climate nerve and signature honey and spice notes, while the Pinot Noirs deliver sumptuous color, weight, and black fruit character with robust tannins and a remarkable intensity of flavor.”

Reflecting Heidi’s small-lot approach to winemaking, the vineyard team prunes each block of Wildcat Mountain Vineyard separately and at different times, using strategies specifically designed to meet the needs of each section. This includes targeted irrigation methods tailored to each block, with the vines allowed to maintain a moderate amount of stress. “When it comes to best Sonoma Coast and Petaluma Gap vineyards, it’s often the most challenging sites that yield the most spectacular wines, and that’s Wildcat in a nutshell,” added Heidi. “Challenges build character. From the thin soils to the buffeting winds, the vines are forced to struggle, producing small yields of thick-skinned grapes that are incredibly interesting and complex. When I drink a wine from Wildcat, it’s like I’m transported to the vineyard.”

It’s hard to believe that 2024 is my fourteenth harvest here at MacRostie and my twelfth as a winemaker. Or to put it another way, I’ve been making wine at MacRostie for a third of my life, and I’ve seen many different types of vintages. Each year brings new insights and wisdom-there is always something to learn. The 2024 growing season was an interesting one, and the success of the vintage will be different depending on what type of varietals you work with and what regions you grow them in. As a winery dedicated to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from cool-climate regions that include the Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, Petaluma Gap, Carneros, Redwood Valley, Anderson Valley, and the Santa Lucia Highlands the 2024 growing season was excellent, and I am particularly excited by our Chardonnays.

The vintage started with perfect weather for flowering, producing a bountiful crop of Pinot Noir and historically average yields for Chardonnay. Moderate early summer temperatures with occasional short periods of heat provided ideal conditions for ripening. This was followed by a hot July and mild temperatures throughout most of August. In terms of the timing of the weather in the leadup to harvest, as a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay winemaker, the conditions were great.

There was some heat at the end of August and into September that hurried things along, but just as I started to get stressed about things like tank capacity and dehydration, the weather really cooled off. This gave us an extra two weeks for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to recover on the vine, soak up some moisture, finish ripening, and come in at an even and steady pace—with really amazing quality overall! 

Happily, all of our grapes were harvested by October 1^st, which meant that we were able to bring everything in before the big heat wave that hit in October. In fact, we were finished with our Pinot Noir fermentations by the middle of October, and we are currently just wrapping up the primary fermentations for our Chardonnays. While it is still very early to properly assess the characteristics of individual wines, in general terms I am very enthusiastic. Across the board, the wines are clean, aromatic, and elegant, and I am particularly impressed with the phenomenal quality of our Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

Because everything was picked before the October heat wave, the grapes arrived in pristine condition, with pure, profound flavors and an electric intensity that promises a standout vintage. While the 2021 vintage remains perhaps my favorite overall vintage for Pinot and Chardonnay, I think our 2024 Chardonnays have the potential to rival even that extraordinary growing season. Of course, only time will tell, and it will be a couple of years until we begin releasing our 2024s. Until then, our 2021, 2022, and soon-to-be-released 2023 wines offer a world of pleasure and discovery.

HEIDI BRIDENHAGEN
Winemaker – MacRostie Winery and Vineyards