2011 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard

Red Car is one of the most exciting young wineries in Sonoma. Under proprietor Carroll Kemp, the wines have made huge strides in quality just over the last few years. Red Car's Estate vineyard was only planted beginning in 2006, with Syrah, which was followed by Pinot Noir in 2007. Beginning with the 2011 vintage, Red Car has begun to get rid of the fanciful proprietary name (which always struck me as a bit of a gimmick) in favor of vineyard names, a choice that seems much more appropriate for a winery with this level of ambition.

"I like the clarity and fruit intensity of the '11s," owner/winemaker Carroll Kemp told me, "but they required more man hours and vineyard work than any vintage ever to make it into the bottle." He told me that his current focus is on getting as much aroma out of his wines as possible, "which means gentler pressing--in other words, like pinot noir for the syrahs--and also trying to stretch the malos out to get more complexity in the perfume." To make a quick point about the potential for syrah in 2011, Kemp showed me a barrel sample from his estate vineyard in Fort Ross: it looks extremely promising, with intense dark berry fruit and flourishes of flowers, spices and olive, and a silkiness of texture that's eerily reminiscent of a top-drawer wine from the northern Rhone.