2004 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard

Ted Lemon made the decision to rack his 2004 chardonnays-for the first time since 1995-as the malolactic fermentations took more than a year to finish, and he felt that he needed to remove these delicate wines from their gross lees to preserve their elegance. The wines went into tank in October and were bottled in February, about a month before I tasted them. Lemon told me that both 2004 and 2003 were hot growing seasons, but that 2003 witnessed more heat during the harvest itself. And 2004 was his highest-acid vintage for chardonnay since 1998, another year when Lemon felt the wine's aromatic qualities were delicate. In both years, though, sugar levels in the pinot noir grapes were zooming at the end of the season. Lemon noted that in his early years, he tended to vinify pinot noir with about one-third whole clusters, but since 1998 he has normally destemmed all of his fruit.