VineBuzz

On May 26, 2011 (aka #Chardonnay Day), Julianne Laks, winemaker at Cakebread Winery, presented an overview of how their philosophy guides their practices in pressing, fermentation, and aging of Chardonnay. Each wine should be made with an eye toward quality improvement, longer lifetimes, and higher valuations from release going forward. Many of the metrics that assist or guide timing are couched in terms of intensity, phenols, esters, acid profiles, flavor profiles, aroma profiles, pH, and brix. The presentation was re-inforced by tasting certain Chardonnays to illustrate the core concepts which she adheres to in her craft of this varietal:

• Nightpicking improves flavors, acids, and intensity, which leads to greater age-ability
• Delicate cluster pressing minimizes skin rupture, reducing the introduction of potassium into the juice, the avoidance of which lends toward better acidity profile and aging, leading to greater freshness, vibrancy, and age-ability.
• Malolactic Fermentation is applied in a light style for modifying and smoothing out acidity in a few lots.
• Reserves must barrel-age without displacing the fruit aromas and flavors which are at the heart of the wine's balance. Higher percentages of denser oaks from the northern most wine oak forests of the americas, as well as greater participation of neutral (older-oak) barrels. In any event, barrel-aging takes place in fairly low percentages and rarely for more than 14 months.

The slam dunk of the presentation was the taste and aroma contrast in their Carneros Reserve, 2006 vs. 2008, where the only substantial difference between the wines was the 2 additional years of bottle-aging due to the vintage. The value added by two years would be much less dramatic in the absence the above-mentioned practice wisdoms. Reserves made inside of this framework should continue to appreciate in market value and overall quality for 5 to 10 years, provided proper storage.