Claire Hill Lolonis Vineyard Chardonnay

Origin: Mendocino County, California, USA

Grape: Chardonnay

From the winemaker, who paints her own labels: "The 2021 vintage saw a continuation of California’s extreme draught conditions and yields in this dry-farmed old vine block were one-third of normal. With incredibly small clusters and thick skins with concentrated flavor, I chose to press the grapes with a bit more pressure than usual. With so much less juice, the goal of pressing hard was to extract all of the flavor and complexity concentrated in the skins without extracting bitterness. To prevent this, I tasted continually throughout the later press cycles to cut the press at just the right moment. I always press my whites whole cluster. After several days, native fermentation began. Once primary fermentation has peaked and begins to slow down, I consolidate the wine into fewer barrels to minimize the amount of barrel headspace and oxygen exposure

The label artwork on this bottle is of rosa californica, the California Wild Rose. These small pink flowers and their vibrant red hips can be found in California from the coast to the foothills. Like the vines at Lolonis, the California Wild Rose can weather California’s periodic draughts and manages to nevertheless put out beautiful blooms."