Winemaker Notes

This 2008 Chardonnay - our second white wine - fruit and mineral driven opens with a rich bouquet of subtle hints of pineapple, tropical fruit, and lemon meringue that wrap themselves around a steely backbone unique to Garden Creek. The flavors are enriched with mineral tones of wet stone, a gentle entry with a playful lightness and lingering sensations of honey, citrus and hints of vanilla. A lingering delightful finish.

Climate and Harvest

The 2008 Chardonnay growing season began with an exceptionally dry spring pushing an early bud break. April turned the corner with 3 weeks of below normal temperatures. The damaging morning frosts were combated with fans and sprinklers leaving us with a month of sleepless nights. The 2008 spring is one never to be forgotten. With the frost season now behind us and the damage assessed, we were faced with a difficult year of fruit and canopy management. We once again meticulously hand managed the vineyard vine by vine to maintain the balance and consistency of high quality fruit able to ripen fully and evenly.

Summer months brought consistent warm days with foggy mornings and few heat spikes. As August delivered unusually warm temperatures, the maturation of the fruit arrived and harvest began September 10th. The decreased yields of 2008 revealed a very concentrated and high quality Chardonnay.

Once the clonal selections were chosen, the fruit was whole cluster handpicked in the early morning beginning at 2am under lights directly into 550 gallon wine tanks that were driven by trailer out into the vineyard. The sealed tanks full of clusters were allowed to macerate carbonically on skins for 4 days at 45 degrees. The fruit was then removed by hand from tank and gently whole cluster pressed in the cremant (champagne) style pressing - slow and gentle. 100% barrel fermentation in french oak barrels with 1/3 indigenous and 2/3 hand-selected Burgundian yeasts. Aging began after 2 months, lees where stirred weekly and barrel aged for 8-months in 50-percent new french oak.