2019 Division Chardonnay 'Un', Willamette Valley

The 2019 Chardonnay “Un” is a throwback to Old World acid driven style we love from this glorious grape. Couple with a generosity of fruit and texture on the palate that makes you realize you are in the New World. The aromatics are a nice balance of orchard fruit - pears with hints of marzipan (think pear almond tart, but not too buttery) and hints of light and well integrated flinty reduction. On the tongue, the wine is lively with gorgeous fruit, mineral character and tons of length. The 2019 Chardonnay “Un” is, in our opinion, fresh and balanced, much like 2017 and 2018, with the nice depth of barrel fermented Chardonnay— ready to drink, but capable of further development in bottle for those looking to sit on a few!

Vinification

We utilized the pied de cuve (vineyard native yeast cultivation) build up, a technique that we now use for nearly all of our ferments. This method, especially with the Chardonnay ferments, has resulted in a gorgeously complex final wine with happy and robust primary fermentations. These fermentations were long and cool in our French and Austrian oak barrel program –each of our barrel selections is tailored to the unique vineyard site to restrain oak flavour impact without losing valuable tannin and numerous compounds that enhance structure and elegance. The
wines also naturally completed their secondary malolactic fermentation by early summer of
2020.