2011 Michael Faraday Matthiasson Family Vineyard
In 2011, due to frost and early season rain, the fruit set in Matthiasson’s already low-yielding Chardonnay vineyard in Sonoma was so poor that we were only able to make one barrel of wine. This is one-quarter the amount of what we made in 2010. We fermented the precious juice in barrel and aged the wine on its lees with no racking, no stirring and no So2. In spite of this care, and the remarkable, rocky vineyard site, still we feared for the first 15 months of its life that the wine would be a totally normal California Chardonnay. But when we tasted it early this Summer, the wine had taken on the Jura or Sherry-like character we associate with the Michael Faraday. With no visible surface yeast, we think it could be as much the vineyard as the microbial nature of the wine. Excellent, long, structured, penetrating.
104 cases produced.