2009 Chardonnay Rincon Vineyard

The long, cool 2010 growing season helped to produce fruit that Brian Talley said perfectly suited his family estate's wine philosophy. He called it "a Talley vintage" in the sense that it was possible to make concentrated wines with depth of flavor but also balance and tension, the style he favors. As for 2009, a moderate growing season was followed by a hot, late summer and an early September heat spike that pushed ripening up quickly but not excessively. "The fruit was clean and there was a good amount of it, which is nice because we got set back a lot with 2010's short crop, like everybody." The Talley wines age remarkably well, by the way, as I've learned from drinking wines from my own cellar. I was also able to taste a fairly extensive vertical of chardonnays and pinots recently that went back to the 1980s and it further confirmed these wines' ability not only to endure, but to evolve and improve with age.

Brian Talley doesn't miss a beat. This is an impressive set of wines from top to bottom. In general, I had a slight preference for the 2008 Chardonnays over the 2009s, as I found that the older vintage showed more delineation and finesse. Readers who prefer a bold, overt style of Chardonnay may find more immediate pleasure in the 2009s. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the 2009 Pinots, which had just been bottled. The 2008 Pinots are terrific, but they need quite a bit of air to show their best. The Chardonnays were fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged on their lees in 30% new oak. The Pinots are fermented in open top fermenters, using native yeasts, and aged in barrel for 18-19 months. Talley used 30-35% new oak for the Pinots.