I consider my friends in Napa to be some of the most generous people around. Especially when it comes to wine. There's no shortage of wine sharing whenever I get out to Napa. Dinner our first night out there was one such occasion. We were having dinner with Richard Ward, co-founder of Saintsbury who makes world-class pinot noir and chardonnay. Frankly, they're better known for the pinot noir, and he showed us why pouring a 2000 single vineyard that tasted like a 2012 (In fact we didn't know what he had poured and so he had us guess. Most of us thought somewhere around 2012; I was a bit closer, only 2 years off).
But this chardonnay was gorgeous and made me wonder why they aren't better known for their white wine. There's a lot going on in this wine, and on the label. Not only is this from Sangiacomo Vineyards, but specifically their hallowed Green Acres vineyard. This is the first vineyard the Sangiacomos planted back in 1969 and one of their most sought after. While Saintsbury has been buying grapes from Sangiacomo for many decades, this is actually only the second vintage of the Green Acres designated Chardonnay. The wine is treated with utmost respect, hand-harvesting at night to maintain freshness, whole cluster pressed to gain as much flavor as possible, and aging in mostly neutral oak so as not to mask the floral aromas. The goal is to preserve beautiful character of the fruit from Green Acres. It produces great grapes for people like Richard Ward to make great wine. Keep it up Ricardo.
But this chardonnay was gorgeous and made me wonder why they aren't better known for their white wine. There's a lot going on in this wine, and on the label. Not only is this from Sangiacomo Vineyards, but specifically their hallowed Green Acres vineyard. This is the first vineyard the Sangiacomos planted back in 1969 and one of their most sought after. While Saintsbury has been buying grapes from Sangiacomo for many decades, this is actually only the second vintage of the Green Acres designated Chardonnay. The wine is treated with utmost respect, hand-harvesting at night to maintain freshness, whole cluster pressed to gain as much flavor as possible, and aging in mostly neutral oak so as not to mask the floral aromas. The goal is to preserve beautiful character of the fruit from Green Acres. It produces great grapes for people like Richard Ward to make great wine. Keep it up Ricardo.