This is not a standard chardonnay. We had a short crop in 2024 of some pinot noir and pinot gris from a couple of our west Petaluma vineyard sites, so we decided to be experimental and did something crazy. When we were pressing our Chardonnay, we fresh pressed about 15% of these red varietals into the white juice, a technique they do in Champagne to make most of their sparkling wine. Just like the rest of our white wines, this wine was fermented in stainless steel with lees stirring and saw no oak to keep the flavors bright and fresh.
The result is a very atypical chardonnay and a completely different style of wine, but we are a tiny estate winery and have the luxury of making new and experimental things. The red fruit addition gives this wine a slightly off-dark straw color and a lot of floral and fresh berry aromatics. It is soft and easy drinking, but still lean and elegant- low alcohol and not too acidic.
We named the wine ‘Belle Marie’ after Mike’s mother Marie Barber: a life long chardonnay fan and devotee.
