Palate

A round, lush texture with vanilla toast and lemon thyme flavors. A full, hefty wine.

Aromas

Ripe melon, apple cake, and vanilla.

Food Pairing

White meats such as veal or chicken, mushrooms in cream based sauce or grilled salmon.

Vineyard

Boisseau Vineyard is owned and operated by Richard Boisseau. It is located in Front Royal Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, about 5 miles west of Linden. The vineyard was planted in 2000. It is vertically shoot positioned. Dijon clones 96 and 76 are planted on a high bluff above the valley floor. Exposure is west. Soils are a deep clay/silt loam.

Vintage

I can best categorize the 2009 growing season at Linden as "uncommonly lucky." It was a vintage that started as alarmingly awful and ended spectacularly sweet. May and early June were dreary, cool and damp. As the summer progressed, weather conditions improved. The remainder of June was manageable, July was typical with only the occasional thunderstorm and August was dry, but cooler than normal.

“Uncommonly lucky” refers to an amazingly dry stretch during harvest. Northern Virginia was spared from the significant rains that soaked areas to the north, east, south and west. It was a great vintage for Chardonnay with bracing mineral acidity, good textural balance and ripe flavor profiles. Harvest was September 10, 2009.

Winemaking

Chilled grapes were sorted, pressed, juice settled and then barrel fermented in older French oak. No malolactic fermentation. Aged sur lie in barrel for 10 months. 102 cases produced. This wine will improve in the bottle for 2 to 3 years post bottling. Drink now through 2013.

Linden Vineyards / Our Wines / 2009 Vintage | 2009 Boisseau Chardonnay