2011 Chardonnay Estate

Peay is in the middle of nowhere. Literally. Reaching the sprawling, rugged estate is an adventure in and of itself. A collection of hillside sites with multiple exposures set within acres on undeveloped forest, Peay is one of the most marginal sites for growing grapes, even within the context of the Sonoma Coast. Two tons per acre, the bare minimum for most vineyards, is a rare occurrence. The wines, though, are usually terrific and often magnificent. Nick Peay looks after the vineyard, while his wife, Vanessa Wong, makes the wines. Andy Peay, Nick's brother, runs the business. Peay's 2011s show the limits of the cool growing season, as they lack a little of the depth that is found in the more succulent and expressive 2012s. Readers who have not discovered Peay owe it to themselves to do so. The Pinots in particular are worthy of note.

Production in 2011 was "off by a scary magnitude for the second year in a row," with yields of under one ton of fruit per acre, as in the previous vintage, according to Andy Peay. That meant a scant 2,700-case production in '11 (compared to 6,500 cases in 2009), including 315 cases of pinot noir from the esteemed Savoy vineyard, which marks the Peays' inaugural vintage for that bottling. Sugar levels in the grapes leading up to harvest were the lowest the Peays and Vanessa Wong had ever experienced and the selection process was by Andy's account the most draconian in their history, with the sorting table running at literally one quarter the normal speed of a ton of fruit per hour, a norm that is extremely slow to begin with. After that, selections were made in the cellar, with "a lot of finished wine that didn't make the cut sold off in bulk."