2020 Quaker Run Chardonnay
2020 Quaker Run Chardonnay
96 Pts - James Suckling
This wine is marked by its long fermentation and extended lees contact with the sort of autolytic yeast/bread character expected from Champagne and the roundness and texture that one might see from a full malo Chardonnay. The wine retains a balanced acidity but leans a bit more towards the textural side this vintage, with a slight phenolic touch. The Quaker Run Chardonnay is typically highlighted by distinctive lemon curd and clover attributes that are very present in this vintage, complemented by white stone fruits, shortbread, allspice and starfruit. Quaker Run Chardonnay stands as a beautiful expression from our prized mountainside vineyard.
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Composition / Blend
The growing season in Virginia was dynamic to say the least, adding to the chaotic nature of the year as a whole. Despite an early budbreak followed by frost risk in late April and early May, Early Mountain was lucky to avoid the worst of it with only a Petit Manseng block and some lower areas of Chardonnay impacted.
The first half of the growing season was relatively dry and quite hot in June and July. Late July and early August brought a lot of moisture that was very challenging, but things dried out a bit heading into harvest. We ended up in a dance with the Atlantic, as tropical systems waltzed through every ten days for two months. Once again, we were lucky to be spared the worst of the weather, and we emerged at the end of harvest with a cellar full of high quality 2020 wines. In the spirit of every vintage being different than every other in our state, 2020 was unique in that the first half produced lighter wines with high acid and the second half brought riper, more classic wines.
Size
750mL
Wine Specs
Vintage
2020
Aging
12 months on the fermentation lees in 2 year old 500L casks from northern European oak with light and medium toasts. An additional 5 months on the fermentation lees in stainless steel before bottling.
Alcohol %
12.7
Winemaker Notes
2019 is our sixth vintage of this wine, made from the oldest Chardonnay vines at our Quaker Run vineyard (planted in 1999). While it would be easy to call this wine our “Reserve” Chardonnay, that doesn’t get to the heart of what we are doing with the wine. Since we’ve realized this is a special block, we took the approach that we would bottle it separately, from pruning on through fermentation. This meant precision in the vineyard and patience in the cellar. Because of the reliance on ambient yeast for the fermentation, and the ripeness of the grapes, the wine fermented for four months and continued to rest on its lees until January of 2022, when it was bottled.
Aging
12 months on the fermentation lees in 2 year old 500L casks from northern European oak with light and medium toasts. An additional 5 months on the fermentation lees in stainless steel before bottling.