Hardscrabble Journal

Barrel Switch

Today we take advantage of a pause in the harvest to transfer (rack) the fermenting 2020 Chardonnays into barrels. We start each individual lot in tanks, but as soon as the fermentation becomes vigorous and healthy they are pumped into barrels where they will ferment and age for a year.

But before the 2020 Chardonnays can go into barrel, we need to empty them. The 2019 Chardonnays still occupy that space. A number of years ago our practice was to age Chardonnay for 10 months on barrel, and then bottle in August. That way all the barrels would be empty and ready for the next harvest. However after a trip to Burgundy we started to follow a different regime of aging for 12 months in barrel and then an additional four to six months in tank. The reasons have less to do with the vessel and more to do with the lees. Lees are the sediment at the bottom of each barrel or tank. Lees are mostly spent yeast cells from fermentation. They give a special texture and flavor to wines. Of all wines, Chardonnay benefits the most from long lees aging, as the wine’s specialness is textural.

With the 2013 vintage we did two separate bottlings of the Hardscrabble Chardonnay. At first in blind comparative tastings the differences were inconclusive, but after about five years the later bottled wines showed much more depth, length and freshness. Our goal is to produce wines that age, so we have now adapted late bottling to all our single vineyard Chardonnays.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: September 30, 2020