La Fenetre "Bien Nacido Vineyard" Chardonnay 2009 (Santa Maria Valley, California) - [WE 92] [ST 91]

Notes from the Winemaker: The Bien Nacido vineyard was originally planted in 1973. 60% of this wine comes from ‘I’ block. The wide spacing and consistently high quality in the ‘I’ block situated on the South facing ‘bench’ of the Santa Maria valley warranted a new set of inter-plants in the late 1990’s. Those new vines which are reaching a lovely stage of maturity develop fruit that has amazing complexity of flavor at lower levels of potential alcohol and balanced acidity. 2009 yielded just over 2 tons per acre. The other 40% in this blend comes from the hilltop block 11, which was chosen for planting because of the longer sunlight hours, and extremely poor soil which maintains higher acidity at riper levels of sugar, and a yield of just above 1 ton per acre. The 2009 harvest was extremely pure, allowing for minimally invasive techniques and wines that literally made themselves. Both blocks were hand harvested and gently pressed to 20% new French barrels for fermentation and aging. The