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The Vintage: The 2010 growing season we experienced in the Lake Chelan basin made was in general good. A cool – wet spring was followed by a much cooler than normal summer – fall season. Warm – dry conditions existed throughout Washington State from May until harvest was completed in late – October. This resulted in grapes ripened more along the lines of what one would experience from a northern – northwestern region of Germany. Translation……….. nice wines with higher acids and lower alcohol volumes across the board.
The Grape Sources: The Pinot Grigio fruit used to make this wine was harvested from multiple sources. Our Harding Estate Vineyard and the Clo Chevalle Vineyard were blended together with a small amount of Bear Mt. and Peterson grapes (all Lake Chelan AVA). Typically, Pinot Grigio grapes produce wines possessing flavors and aromas of ripe tropical fruits, peaches, nectarine and delicate ripe lemon notes with healthy acidity. The Chardonnay fruit was picked from the DuLia (Lake Chelan AVA) Vineyard. The juice was fermented with French oak and aged ten months on the heavy yeast sediment. The Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Viognier grapes were harvested from the Clo Chevalle Vineyard (Lake Chelan AVA). Bear Mt. Vineyard and Peterson Vineyard (both Lake Chelan AVA) also contributed a small amount of Pinot Grigio.
The Winemaking: All fruit was hand picked and sorted prior to being gently whole cluster pressed. The Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Grigio juices were cold settled three days and racked to clean stainless tanks. The fermentation was conducted in stainless steel at cool (50 – 58 degrees F) temperatures over a twenty day period using the Swiss developed yeast strain Wadenswil 15. The malo-lactic fermentation was not permitted with these wines as we desired to retain the rich acidity needed to make this the fine dinner companion it represents. We fermented and aged the Viognier and Chardonnay wines on French oak for six months in order to develop additional complexities. Our 2010 Stormy Mt. White was filtered to protect the nice apple flavors and aromas of the malic acid.
The Wine: The color is a pale straw. The aromas and flavors are what one would expect from cool climate vineyard sites. Beautiful pear, apricots and pronounced lemons combine with a light honeysuckle note for a great flavor and aroma presentation. The French oak introduced a light toasty oak and vanilla bean note. This wine matches perfectly with seafood and poultry entrees and would stand up to the same served with rich cream sauces. The wine has a very impressive medium to full body mouth feel. It makes for a great summer wine as well as it pairs nicely with cold sandwiches, fresh fruits or Pacific Northwest caught salmon. A good three to five years of cellar potential exist with this fine wine.
% Alcohol: 12.8 %
pH: 3.00
Acidity: 7.7g/liter
Residual Sugar: 12g/liter
Cases produced: 935
Blend: 43% Viognier, 23% Gewurztraminer, 19% Chardonnay, 9% Riesling and 6% Pinot Grigio
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