August 14, 2015: Stylistically an outlier. Riper and massive in scale. Great Alpine Chardonnay complexity but different in style compared to subsequent vintages.

January 23, 2015: Fully mature and ready to drink.

January, 2009: This is open for business and drinking well. Drink.

January, 2007: Starting with 2003, each successive vintage of Alpine Chardonnay has confirmed that we have discovered something special. Alpine Road Vineyard has a shallow layer of clay loam over a sedimentary rock called Purisima Formation that was created 3 million years ago at the bottom of an ancient sea. This unique soil imparts a fantastic chalky minerality that is different but somewhat reminiscent of Corton-Charlemagne. The unique marriage of power, grace and minerality is quite unusual in a New World Chardonnay. The 2004 vintage is our first commercial release (we greedily kept the 2003 for ourselves) and there were 3 barrels.

Fresh nose of white flowers, lemon and wet stone. The very powerful, ripe yet steely fruit is beautifully balanced by a firm acid backbone. The extremely long finish leads to a bucketload of chalky minerals. This Chardonnay is built to age. It will be best in 3-4 years and hold for many more.