Grapes for this wine were destemmed directly to a small 2 ton open top tank the morning of the pick. Fermentation was encouraged immediately, bypassing cold soak, and submerged cap fermentation, a technique also found in our Gamay program, was utilized to fully incorporate body and tannin from the skins, while limiting harshness. This Chardonnay spent a total of 23 days on its skins. The resulting wine was pressed directly to barrel and very limited malolactic fermentation was allowed. It’s counterpart wine to be blended in (around 35%), also from Bazzano Vineyard, was barrel fermented, and treated in a manner fit for Olivet Lane Chardonnay, with regular barrel stirring to create volume to balance the firm tannins of the skin fermented portion.