Vintage

2023

Varietal

Chardonnay

Appellation

Russian River Valley

Vineyard Designation

Occidental Road Vineyards

Sugar

0

Acid

6.37g / L 

Bottling Date

August 2024

Residual Sugar

.61g / L

Alcohol

13.5

For almost two decades, we described Halleck Vineyard as an “ABC” winery.

For those unfamiliar, it refers to “Anything But Chardonnay.” This was not to cast aspersions on
Chardonnay or the people who love it. In fact, Chardonnay was that seminal wine
to convert me from the sweet wines introduced in my teens to truly an adult wine, a fine wine, in my mid-20s.

But as with many good things, too much of one can lead to distaste. And this was the case with California Chardonnay. After drinking it for some time, I began to find it too oaky, too buttery, too cloying, and just too too.

This was not the case, however,  with White Burgundy, French Chardonnay. To me, a Grand Cru White Burgundy was the king of white wines. A colleague at Beaulieu Vineyards introduced me to Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne, a Grand Cru Burgundy in my late 20s. All of us wine lovers have those moments when the earth stops. That was one moment.

California Chardonnay couldn’t hold a candle to that experience.

As we began as a Pinot Noir producer, it was an obvious add-on to include Chardonnay, another
Burgundy. But Sancerre was a bigger love, and I couldn’t afford to continually refresh my Grand Cru Burgundy experience.

So we created our Little Sister Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay was left to the unwashed masses of
other wineries to produce en masse.

Then 2020 rocked our world with fire. In short, we lost all our fruit in every vineyard to the danger of smoke taint. It was a huge risk to our brand to produce a flawed wine. So we didn’t. And we extended the word to our Inner Circle, our wine club, that we would be bridging the gap with older vintages, but would not make 2020 wine.

Then we got a phone call from one of our Inner Circle members. He had some Chardonnay picked in error, prior to the fires. “Picked in error” means that it was harvested before it reached the desired sugar levels required in his contract with the winery who had secured it. And they rejected the fruit. 

So he had wine in barrel, not crafted, just picked and pressed, without a home. So he called us with his problem in hopes of creating some dent in our problem. But an additional problem was that we were a declared ABC winery. How could we consider making a California Chard. After all, if we can’t sell it, we have to
drink it;)

But in her wisdom, Jennifer convinced me that as a member of our valued community, our Inner
Circle, we owed him a consideration and a tasting.

We arranged to meet Ron at the crush facility to do a blind tasting to include his wine. And I stacked the deck. We purchased wines from sister wineries I knew were striving to make a White Burgundy, using minimal oak, limited malolactic fermentation (creates that buttery taste in Chardonnay) and stainless steel. None had accomplished what I remembered, but at least they were on the hunt. And I included a couple Premier Cru Burgundies (one notch down from Grand Cru, but
substantially less expensive-French nevertheless).

These were all placed in brown paper bags, six wines total. 5 of us were tasting and our job was to try the wines, write short tasting notes and put them in order of preference. Keep in mind, Ron’s wine was unfinished and virtually untouched, sitting for months in neutral oak, straight from the vineyard. I thought he didn’t have a chance.

We proceeded with the task at hand. We tasted these wines, sitting at a picnic table in a parking lot in an industrial park in Santa Rosa. Not romantic.

Cutting to the chase, 4 of the 5 us rated Ron’s wine the top of the heap, #1 out of 6 wines tasted. Jennifer and I were in solid agreement. It was a total surprise to us all.

Thus, 2020 was our first vintage of Halleck Vineyard Chardonnay, picked a bit too soon, and crafted in the style of a White Burgundy, showing bright acids that could never lean to cloying and a balance that tips it’s golden-hued hat to the French.

Unfortunately, that vineyard was again contracted by the original winery the following year. But we’ve been able to source fruit in this bountiful region to align with our goals and pick it a bit early. So the tradition and style carry on.

Ironically, however, Halleck Vineyard still remains an ABC winery: “Anything But Cab.”