2006 CHARDONNAY SOLOMON HILLS SPECIAL BOTTLING #1 Dry
Santa Maria Valley -Botrytis Dry Wine- 750 ml

We made four chardonnays from Solomon Hills in 2006 just to confuse you--or perhaps us! This is one of two that came about because of extraordinary conditions in the vineyard. In 2006 I was astonished to see botrytis mold growing perfectly on the Solomon Hills Chardonnay--a rare occurrence. Botrytis is the agent that allows French and German winemakers to make the most celebrated dessert wines in the world. Besides concentrating flavors and sugars naturally in grapes, it contributes a wonderful honeyed and apricot aroma and flavor to wines. While in this case I was sure the botrytis was a good thing, to be extra careful, the effected clusters were picked ahead of the main harvest of chardonnay, and fermented separately. The result was so dramatic that we bottled it as a special lot. Although completely dry, this wine has an incredible concentration of flavor and richness--and it has interesting honeyed complexities that only botrytis can give. Full throttled, because the botrytis concentrated the flavors, yet light on its feet because the acidity is concentrated as well. We were so excited by this wine we went back to the vineyard manager at Solomon Hills and asked him if there were other buyers that did not want their botrytis effected grapes so we could make a sweet dessert wine. See my notes on the special bottling #2 for the results of that quest.