Chardonnay "East Block", Knights Bridge, Knights Valley, Sonoma, CA 2018

The entire 2018 growing season was 3-4 weeks later than recent vintages with a cold winter and just enough rainfall that bud break occurred in late March. This set the pace for the grape growing season to continue progressing at a somewhat late yet normal pace. Very little rain or wind during the May flowering period led to a generous but not excessive cluster count. August was very foggy with many cool mornings where the sun didn’t peek through the marine layer until lunchtime. The only real weather concern of the entire vintage was a heat spike in June during fruit set and a little rain in late September. The weather was glorious throughout October with cool, foggy mornings and sunny days.