2021 Chardonnay Martinelli Road

It’s always deeply educational to taste through these wines with the Martinelli family. Winemaker Courtney Robinett Wagoner has done a terrific job in giving these wines a bit more energy while remaining faithful to the Martinelli style. Her 2021 Chardonnays are especially brilliant. The 2022s are also very good, all things considered. “We had heavy rain at the end of 2021 going into 2022,” Lee Martinelli Sr. told me. “January and February were very warm. Budbreak was early. We had a week of bad weather during flowering, which resulted in a lot of shatter. Intense heat around Labor Day caused everything to ripen at the same time. We picked all our fruit in ten days as opposed to the more typical 20 or so. Our total production is down by nearly 50%.” Time in barrel for the wines is 10-11 months, 50-60% new, with minimal racking. The exception is the Syrah, which sees more frequent racking, as Syrah generally benefits from aeration and longer aging of 10 months in barrel, 50% new, followed by six months in neutral oak. All the Martinelli reds are done with destemmed fruit.