Patz & Hall Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2018

Alcohol: 14.2%

Grape(s): Chardonnay

Localization: Sonoma County, California, USA

Tasting Notes: The wine has inviting aromas of apricot, lemon zest, brown sugar cookie, dried lavender and heavily roasted hazelnut. The palate is mouthwatering, vibrant and fresh with sleek acidity supporting flavorful pulses of spicy pear, green apple, marzipan and orange-clove.

Notes: 100% Whole cluster pressed. 100% indigenous yeast fermentations. Sur lie aged with weekly stirring.
100% malo-lactic fermentation in barrel, 32% new Burgundian French oak barrels. Sterile filtered at bottling

The Domain: Patz and Hall Wine Company was founded in 1988 by Donald Patz, James Hall, Anne Moses and Heather Patz, and is dedicated to the production of hand-crafted wines. The four are long-time Napa Valley residents and wine industry professionals, with a wide variety of experiences. Patz and Hall produces Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from selected vineyard sources in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Monterey counties. The Patz and Hall method is to work closely with each of their growers to achieve a unique expression of the vineyard site and deliver wines that reflect both the site and their vision for great wine.

The 2017 growing season kicked off with record rainfall, a welcome addition after almost five years of drought. In the early spring the weather began to clear, and the growing season began to look up with sunny and warm conditions. Around flowering, weather conditions started to oscillate between foggy and windy days and unusually hot spikes. This continued into June, where unseasonably hot weather left clusters with small berries and a much lighter crop than predicted. More very hot weather arrived at the end of August and remained for two weeks, causing us to scramble to get the grapes into the winery at ideal ripeness levels. Fortunately, our many farming relationships delivered wonderfully, escaping most of the heat related stresses, delivering perfectly ripe fruit. We started harvest on August 18th with sparkling cuvee and brought our last grapes in on September 27th. When the fires broke out in Napa and Sonoma the night of October 8 we had, fortunately, already picked all our grapes.