2017 Chardonnay Belle Pente Vineyard

Yamhill-Carlton

The 2017 vintage of our Belle Pente Vineyard Chardonnay is a chameleon. Initially, notes of orange peel citrus and spice suggest a decadent wine, but these quickly give way to cool and clean aromas of honeysuckle, wintergreen, and crushed oyster shell. It's reminiscent of a top-flight premier cru Chablis with bright, focused acidity supporting green apple and tangerine flavors. To our surprise, the wine is also showing a level of dissolved CO2 that is high enough that the wine comes across spritzy. It's about the level of bubbles similar to a Basque txakoli. Fortunately, there is a lot of precedence in the history of wine for Chardonnay to have bubbles (we're looking at you Champagne) so we thought we would laud this happy accident!