Lingua Franca Sisters Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay 2021

Winter was extremely cold, with a historic ice storm that left the region without power for two weeks. It remained cool and wet throughout early spring, but warmed up in time to have a major heat dome event at the end of June with record-breaking 47°C temperatures. The resiliency of our non-irrigated soils, having fractured basalt as both an insulator as well as source of stored water meant that our vines had almost no negative effect and remained verdant all the way through. The heat event reduced mildew pressure from a wet spring and the harvest proceeded with fruit in perfect balance and excellent, moderately cool conditions.

All the fruit was hand-picked, vineyard sorted, whole berry pressed, settled for 24 hours in air-tight tanks, and spontaneously fermented by wild yeast in 600-litre puncheons with no acid additions. The wine was aged in the same barrel sur lie for 11 months, then assembled in an airtight stainless-steel tank for 6 months prior to bottling. The amount of lightly toasted new oak puncheons in the élévage was 33%.