Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay 2018, Napa Valley, California

2018 vintage – 100% Chardonnay. “This wine opens with aromas of ripe golden apple, white peach, and notes of oak. On the palate, apple and pear characters are balanced by fresh acidity, and the finish is clean, with appealing mineral notes. This is a versatile food-pairing wine – we love it with fresh salads, grilled scallops, and nearly any selection of cheeses. Over 40 years ago, we released our very first wine: a 1973 Napa Valley Chardonnay, and we have been fine-tuning it ever since. Our vineyards received ample rainfall this year, and we saw the grapes mature uniformly with extraordinary flavor, concentration and balanced acidity. The Haire Loam soil series in these vineyards naturally regulate vigor as well as yield. The cool weather at the site, along with customized and meticulously-maintained trellising, provides an ideal setting for growing the Chardonnay varietal. We harvested the grapes by night in small batches as they reached perfect maturity. The fruit, cool from the evening temperatures, was pressed directly into tank using whole cluster pressing. We then transferred the juice into French oak barrels to ferment. In order to achieve maximum fruit expression, we aged the wine on primary yeast lees for eight months with intermittent stirring of the lees to enhance texture and boost complexity.” – from the winery