2010 Chardonnay Helfer Vineyard

As I enter the spacious cellar I am greeted by faint, mellow tones that are clearly those of a Martin D-28. Fred Scherrer coaxes those same soulful notes from his wines. Scherrer offers his wines in two distinct offerings – younger wines for the retail mailing list and older wines for the trade – so keeping up with new releases across both channels of distribution is a bit of a challenge, but hopefully I have managed to capture the best of what is in the cellar today. Relative to most of his peers, Scherrer prefers longer elevage, while rackings are kept to a bare minimum. At times, I feel some of these wines might benefit from being bottled earlier, which might also preserve more freshness.

Fred Scherrer said that his "public service" policy of releasing and re-releasing wines on a staggered schedule has proven wildly popular with his direct customers."The ones who want to jump on the newest vintage get their shot and people who buy to drink get the chance to buy wines with bottle age," he said.That policy hasn't caught on as quickly with the restaurant trade, he noted, because "lots of buyers are suspicious of older wines on offer.They think that there must be issues, otherwise they'd be sold out.It's kind of weird."All of Scherrer's wines are built to age, he said, "and not just age, but change, or what's the point?"With that, he opened a bottle of his 1998 Scherrer Vineyard chardonnay: it was almost shockingly youthful, with intense spice and floral character and zesty acidity.