Winemaker's Notes
This wine is bone dry, loaded with fresh minerality. It’s bright and crisp, with flavors both complex and rich. You might find aromas of white blossoms, or fresh apples and pears with hints of peach pit and bitter almond with an integrated creaminess thanks to judicious lee stirring.
“I’ve long been a fan of Chardonnay, so when I started working with Kermit Lynch in 1992, I was especially enthusiastic about meeting with our Burgundy producers. During a trip to France in 1993, I met with Chardonnay producers in the Loire Valley, Alsace, the Jura, and the Languedoc, and learned about Chardonnay from these other wine regions. I grew to love them as well.
Nothing, however, equaled the attraction I developed for Chardonnay from Chablis. The producers I came to know from this northern-most area of Burgundy became my favorites. The wine improved any meal, I learned, and was even delicious on its own. A platter of fresh Bélon oysters with a bottle of Chablis at Le Dôme Café in Paris completed my education.
When our winemaker Tadeo Borchardt accompanied me to Le Dôme, we had a platter of oysters while he listened to me talk about Chablis. He mentioned a Chardonnay vineyard he knew of in the southern-most region of Sonoma County’s Carneros District, close to the Bay. The weather was cold, the soil was rocky, and it was planted to the heirloom selection known as ‘Shot-Wente’. This parcel, he felt, might grow Chardonnay similar to that in Chablis.
We ferment this wine in tanks made from food-grade stainless steel called ‘304’, so there is no oak contact. Our 2021 Chardonnay ‘304’ was harvested from the Larson Vineyard at 22 degrees Brix. The total acid is high, and the pH is low. We ferment with the native yeasts trapped on the skins of the grapes. The yeast lees that develop are slowly pumped back over the fermenting juice to maximize their contact with the wine. Fermentation lasts for two months. Malo-lactic fermentation is normally about 50% complete by then, so we allow the wine to sit on the yeast lees for another month before bottling.
The finished wine is bone dry, loaded with fresh minerality. It’s bright and crisp, with flavors both complex and rich. The alcohol level is low, and the wine is ideal with all seafood, especially oysters. I especially enjoy a cold glass of it at the end of the day, though — all by itself.” — Bruce Neyers
History
In 1999, Bruce and Barbara Neyers purchased and renovated a winery on a thirty-acre parcel in the Sage Canyon area of Napa Valley. Over the next 14 months they built a modern, highly functional winery designed for traditional winemaking practices. They produced their first vintage in this state of the art facility in 2000. In 2002, Wine and Spirits Magazine named Neyers Vineyards the Artisan Winery of the Year.
About 25% of our production is Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grown on Bruce and Barbara’s 50-acre, Conn Valley ranch. They purchase additional grapes from a select group of growers, among them the Sangiacomo family of the Carneros District, Will Nord of Napa, the Rossi Ranch of Sonoma County, Markus Bokisch and the Evangelho family.
Even though Neyers Vineyards sits in the heart of the Napa Valley, Bruce's experience with French wine importer Kermit Lynch has had an undeniable influence on their wines. Many of the French producers Bruce has worked with farm organically, make their wines naturally without use of cultured yeast or laboratory designed malo-lactic starter, and bottle their wines without fining or filtration. Neyers barrels are made in France, to our specifications, from wood that we buy in bulk and air dry for three years, two years longer than normal. All of the grapes are picked by hand, into small bins that hold only one-half ton. They are then laboriously hand sorted and inspected at the winery as winemaker Tadeo Borchardt gently guides the winemaking process along. As Bruce says, “No expense has been spared in our grape growing, winemaking practices, or processing equipment, yet customers repeatedly tell us that our wines represent great value in today's highly competitive wine market.” Bruce Neyers produces his own content for the company blog, “Vintner Tales.”